


Out Of The Twilight

by P1rateW3nch



Series: Out of the Twilight [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2018-06-09 03:35:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 24
Words: 39,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6888235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/P1rateW3nch/pseuds/P1rateW3nch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Mass Effect fanfic, that changes the canon of the series from the First Contact War on. The colonists on Shanxi are attacked by Batarian slavers, and Shepard's mother dies in a firefight. The infant is taken in by General Desolas Arterius and raised as his own.  (The edited version!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is roughly a re-write of the first four chapters.  
> Also! Translations:  
> The German segment reads: "Oh my God! I am sorry! Sorry, sorry! Are you all right? Yes? Sorry, my English is not so good. Ah! I'm Hoffmann. You must be Elizabeth Shepard yes? "  
> Turian:  
> garachna- Bastards  
> sikari-Pack hunter, domesticated and used as guard and attack animals, hunted with by sportsmen. Similar in build to the velociraptors in the Jurassic Park movies.

**2157**

Elizabeth Shepard sat in the shuttle, hand resting on her belly as she stared out the window at the planet below. She felt the life within kick and she rubbed absently, trying to soothe. The child she carried had danced almost non-stop once they had reached space.

“Calm yourself, little one. We’re almost there.” She smiled absently at the sailor who stopped to check on her, waving away his offers of assistance. She settled back in her seat, watching as the planet grew closer.

_A new start, where no one will know, or care, where I come from. And a place where it’s unlikely that he will find me._ She smiled at the thought. _He changed, little one. He was kind, and gentle, but now he’s a zealot looking for a cause. You will grow up away from him. I’m afraid of what he would do with you._

She waited through the mad scramble of disembarking, then grabbed her satchel and headed toward the airlock. She had taken a job studying the Prothean ruins located near the colony of Shanxi, and was looking forward to seeing how these differed from the ruins from Mars. She wound her way through the crowded spaceport, looking for her new assistant, Zan Hawker. 

She found him near a column, holding a sign with her name on it. She waved and headed over to him. Once he saw her, he tucked the sign under his arm and set out to meet her, weaving easily through the surging mass of humanity. He took her hand warmly in his.

“Zan Hawker, Doctor Shepard. A pleasure to work with you. Here, let me take your bag. Did you have any other luggage coming?”

Handing him her satchel, she replied, “There should be two trunks being delivered to the labs. I would like to head there first, if you don’t mind.”

He stopped, surprised, then trotted to catch up. “Oh, well, of course! I just thought you might want to rest, considering your condition….”

She wheeled to face him, startling him. “I am pregnant, not an invalid. I have been resting during the entire journey here, and I would like to get started immediately. Now, where is my lab?”

Zan swallowed, then gestured toward the doors to the colony proper. “There is a car waiting for you.”

She glared at him for a moment longer, then turned and marched toward the carport, internally laughing as she watched several people lurch out of her way. She slowed, marginally, after she exited the dock so Zan could catch up. He did, panting, and pointed out the car waiting for them. An attendant was already loading the last of her luggage into the trunk of the vehicle as they approached. She nodded at him and entered the car, Zan running around to the driver’s side.

They drove in silence for a while, then Elizabeth sighed and turned to Zan. “I apologize. I snapped at you when you were only thinking to assist me. I have been coddled every step of this journey and it is tiresome. I thank you for thinking of my comfort, but I do wish to begin. Prothean devices are complicated, and take much time to decipher. The Alliance would like to see what secrets this hides sooner, rather than later. As would I.”

Zan nodded, but kept his eyes on the screen ahead. “Alright. You gonna bite my head off every time you get annoyed?”

She smiled. “I shall endeavor not to, but I can make no promises.”

Zan glanced at her, then snorted. “Fair enough. And here we are.”

The car rolled to a halt in front of a drab, squat building. The beige walls bore new trellises with climbing vines and someone had planted a row of cheerful daffodils along one side in an attempt to liven things up. Elizabeth headed towards the door, making a mental note to ask about the daffodils later.

She entered the building and was nearly plowed over by a small, rotund man with glasses and a clipboard. He dropped the clipboard, papers scattering everywhere, as he cried out and grabbed her arms to steady her. 

“Oh, mein Gott! Es tut mir Leid! Sorry, sorry! Geht es dir gut? Ja?” he stammered, holding her steady and peering earnestly into her face. “Sorry, mein Englisch ist nicht so gut. Ah! Ich bin Hoffmann. Sie müssen Elizabeth Shepard sein, ja?”

Elizabeth shook her head a bit and tried to figure out the German. “I’m sorry. I’m Elizabeth, yes. You said you were Hoffmann? Sorry, my German is nicht so gut.”

Hoffmann waved her away as Zan came up behind her, “Is fine, is fine. I am the device showing, ja? Komm.”

He hurried off down the corridor he came from, muttering to himself, as Elizabeth stared in shock. Turning to Zan, she asked “Is he always like that?”

Zan chuckled a bit and nodded, waving over a pair of students to help unload. “Welcome to Shanxi, Doctor Shepard.”

—————————————————————————————

General Desolas Arterius read the incoming alert and snarled. The batarians had managed to hit again, this time a prestigious cruise liner. The Primarch was demanding further action, hoping to stop these pirates before they managed to kill or enslave any more civilians. Desolas straightened his shoulders and sent a message to his second in command, Abrudas, ordering her to gather up his team and meet him in the docks. After a moment’s thought, he sent an addendum asking Abrudas to bring his brother along, as well. Saren was 16, and halfway through his year of mandatory military service. Unfortunately, the lad had a tendency to disobey orders and back-talk his superior officers. Desolas chuckled to himself as he grabbed his gear and headed out. He would watch Saren and see how best to guide the lad.

He marched onto the dock, nodding absently at the ensign saluting him. His attention was focused on the ship ahead of him. The MSV Sevrum was a fine ship, and responsible for catching some of these blasted pirates. He sent his subvocals humming in satisfaction as he saw his squad waiting at attention before the ship. He marched past them without comment and boarded the ship to speak with Admiral Antoria Tibrius. He found her aft in the Command in Combat unit, studying the map of the galaxy. Desolas noted absently that the sites of all the batarian attacks were marked, but he found that he was distracted by the presence of the admiral herself. 

Desolas was considered tall, even for a turian, standing just over 2.2 meters tall, but he judged that the admiral was only a few centimeters shorter than him. She was lean, the whipcord and bone nature of turians everywhere, and her fringe surrounded a very striking face enhanced by a vibrant teal colony tattoo that swept from her left cheek down to her right mandible passing under piercing silver eyes. She seemed built for combat, and carried herself with the unconscious grace of a warrior. As he studied her, he knew that he would do anything to have this woman at his side. Suddenly, he realized that he was staring at her like an unblooded whelp as she watched him, browplate raised.

He coughed awkwardly, mandibles pulled tight to his jaw in embarrassment. He approached the CIC and saluted. “General Desolas, Admiral. My team and I await your pleasure.”

Admiral Antoria nodded, mandibles half-spread in quiet amusement, and stepped down from the platform. “Your team can store their gear in the armory, and can rest in the starboard lounge.”

Desolas nodded, and turned to go. He herded his team below-decks, trying to shove the embarrassment to the back of his mind as he returned to the CIC to consult with the admiral. Unconsciously, he straightened his uniform as he approached the CIC again. He felt the rising thrill of the upcoming hunt thrumming in his veins, and briefly wondered whether it was the thought of finally catching the pirates or the chance at wooing a warrior like the admiral that excited him more.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

Elizabeth shifted a bit on the hospital bed, wincing briefly as her back cramped up again. Once settled, she went back to her tablet, studying the results of the scans on a newer Prothean device. The past three months had shown massive successes in technical improvements and the recovery of a few new Prothean artifacts, but her proudest achievement was the translator.

Once programmed with a language, it permitted the wearer to read and understand that language with the fluency of a native speaker. They had been testing it extensively, and now the team could converse effortlessly in English, German, Mandarin, and Urdu. Elizabeth had her interns busy with the tedious business of adding more languages as demanded by the Systems Alliance, but she didn’t hear any of them complaining. The Alliance had paid a vast sum of money to the team to purchase translators for all the soldiers under their banner, and her team was willing to work tirelessly to meet the demand.

She studied the results Hoffmann had sent her and felt a thin thread of fear weave through the joy. This new device looked innocuous enough, but something about it repulsed her. She had learned to trust her instincts and had ordered that any tests done on the device must be done with drones. Her team objected at first, some even going so far as to test the device in person. It had unleashed a massive electrical surge,killing the small team instantly. Elizabeth studied the newest test results, frowning. 

Before she could come to a conclusion, the door burst open and her doctor, Laurie Gaines, rushed in, closely followed by Zan, a harried looking nurse, and a pair of Alliance soldiers. The soldiers took up a guard position on either side of the door while Dr. Gaines and Zan continued to her bed. Zan looked worriedly at the ceiling and the sounds of a ships engine whined through the air.

“Something’s gone wrong, Dr. Shepard. We’re going to into lockdown. Zan will and Nurse McDonough will be on standby in case you have any issues.” Dr. Gaines said brusquely as she gestured the nurse into the room.

Zan took Elizabeth’s hand and squeezed gently. She nodded at him, then glanced at the soldiers and back to Zan. “How bad?” she demanded.

Zan shrugged. “There is a group of mercenaries shooting up the labs, and some weird looking ships flying around, but no one knows much more than that.”

Elizabeth nodded and looked over at the soldiers, waving at the closest one. “You two need to get everyone under the lockdown. Give me your clutch piece, and I can protect myself.”

The soldiers exchanged a glance, then turned to Dr. Gaines. She nodded, seeming relieved that someone was cooperating. One of the soldiers unhooked his pistol, handing it to Elizabeth. Dr. Gaines checked her vitals, then nodded at the soldiers and headed out.

Nurse McDonough came over to check Elizabeth’s vitals, nervously looking at the door every few seconds. “So, umm. You arrived, umm, with false labor pains?”

Elizabeth sighed internally and turned to Zan. “Could you be a dear and roll my bed to face the door? Thank you.” Turning back to the nurse, she smiled. “Yes. I’ve been cramping for about a day now.”

Once the bed was locked in its new position, Zan retreated to the far corner of the room, face almost crimson in embarrassment. He sat in a chair in the corner, pointedly studying a datapad with far more intensity than the information required.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes in amusement, then started as the door burst open again. A humanoid form in armor unlike that worn by the alliance stepped through the doorway, flanked by two more figures. Something looked off about the shapes of the armor, Elizabeth noted, the helmets were unusually large. She drew the pistol and sighted at the leading figure. It seemed surprised at that, and threw a small cannister into the room.

Elizabeth fired off three rounds, hitting the figure in the chest as the room filled with an acrid smoke. She felt her head start to spin as the smoke rose, and fired off several more rounds wildly at the figures. She heard a body slump to the floor to her side as she succumbed to the rising blackness.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

The Sevrum burst out of the relay, the helmsman already making the adjustments to the new heading. Desolas stood a pace behind Antoria, eyes fixed on the scans of the planet below. It had only been inhabited recently, and by a new race that hadn’t reached the Citadel yet. Desolas was amused by the reports of these ‘humans’. Apparently they had opened every mass relay and colonized every system they came across. Luckily for them, they had not yet reached Relay 314, or that attitude would have ended badly for them.

The ship raced through the darkness, and Desolas was surprised to see the batarian slave ship still in orbit. His mandibles rose high and tight in excitement at finally taking these garachna out. He turned to Octaeus Tannis, the tech specialist in his squad. “See what information you can collect about this colony.”

Octaeus nodded and turned back to his station. After a few moments, Desolas heard pings coming from his squad’s omnitools. Turning back to Octaeus, he watched the younger turian tap a few more icons and rise to meet him.

“They have newly developed translators. I’ve uploaded every language they have in their databases to the squad’s omnitools, and added the turian and batarian language packets to the human databases. Anyone down there with a translator should be able to follow along. They also discovered a few Prothean artifacts, the usual, mostly, but there is one artifact that doesn’t match any known signatures. The team lead seems mistrustful of it, refers to it as if it were alive and aware sometimes, and has kept her team from directly accessing it. Considering that it killed the only team to go near it, I suggest the same.”

Desolas nodded and signaled to his team. They headed toward the shuttle bay, studying the new intel and chatting with each other about details that caught their eye. Desolas mentally chuckled as Abrudas chivvied Saren into the elevator. His squad had taken well to the addition of his brother, and Desolas wondered idly if Saren had realized that they were deliberately not referring to Saren as “Desolas’ brother”. Saren had thrived under the attention, branching out to study specializations he hadn’t considered before. Octaeus had informed Desolas, too, that Saren had expressed an interest in trying for Spectre status. Desolas was pleased, and encouraged his team to help in any way they could.

He shook his head as the doors closed on the elevator, and turned his attention to the mission at hand. His omnitool pinged with a map of the settlement, the movement of the batarians already mapped out. He studied the patterns, and realized what the batarians were looking for. The strange artifact. He sighed and sent a quick report for Antoria to pass along to the Council and the Primarch should the mission end badly. He was about to address his team when his omnitool pinged again.

“Desolas,  
Don’t die. I’m not through with you yet.  
And do try not to pick up any more scars, I remember your hide as it is now, and it is perfect.  
Antoria”

He felt his mandibles shift to a soft smile, then forced his face into expressionless lines to address his squad. They stood at attention, focused on the mission ahead like sikari waiting to be set to prey. 

“The batarians are looking for a Prothean artifact. This artifact is dangerous, and should be avoided at all costs. Abrudas, take team two and head to the far end of the settlement. Saren, you have point on team one. I’ll try to collect the information they have collected on the Prothean artifacts. Take out all batarians you find, but do not fire on these humans. You all have their language now, tell them we’re only here for the batarians. Help any civilians you can, but the batarians are top priority.”

They saluted, and Abrudas’ team broke off for her briefing. Saren looked bewildered for a moment, then straightened his armor and led his team to the point of deployment. Desolas watched both teams work out their details, then the helmsman announced the approach for drop point one. Saren looked wide-eyed at Desolas, then swallowed and led his team down the ramp. Abrudas brought her team up, and deployed without incident at drop point two. 

Desolas leapt out of the ship once drop point three was announced, and rolled once he hit the ground. The Sevrum headed back to orbit, and Desolas studied the layout again. He was close to a hospital, with the main labs about a mile away. He sighed and prepared to start toward the labs when movement ahead caught his eye. Several batarians were dragging some humans out of the hospital. Desolas narrowed his eyes as he readied his rifle. He shot the final batarian, who was pushing a bed with an unconscious human on it, right between the upper and lower eyes. He ducked behind cover as the batarians unceremoniously dropped their loads and returned fire.

He heard a scuffle amongst the batarians, and some wild shots that didn’t come close to his cover. Cautiously, he peeked over the low wall and saw the form on the bed was sitting up and waving a pistol at the two remaining batarians. He took them out quickly, then called out to the reclining figure.

“Don’t shoot. I’m here to help.”

“Come out slowly, with your hands up.”

Desolas holstered his rifle and did so, carefully rising to his feet. The figure in the bed gasped, but held the pistol steadily aimed at him. Desolas slowly approached the bed, glancing at the unconscious figures as he passed. Before he could speak, the figure hissed and grabbed its abdomen. 

“Are you all right? Did they hit you?” Desolas asked, concerned. It wouldn’t do for the first human he spoke to to die, after all. 

The figure hissed rhythmically for a while, then replied, “I’m alright, generally speaking. Though I might need a doctor shortly.”

Desolas flicked his mandibles in confusion, then shook his head and checked the other humans. They were groggy, but regaining consciousness. He turned back to the figure in the bed and inclined his head. “I am General Desolas Arterius. My team and I are here to deal with these batarians, but we have just learned of the Prothean artifacts located here. I need copies of all information your scientists have concerning them.”

The human nodded in reply, adding, “I’m Dr. Elizabeth Shepard. I headed the team studying the artifacts. I can get you a copy of my notes, if you’ll help me up.”

Desolas narrowed his eyes and ran a quick scan with his omnitool. “You’re in labor. Wouldn’t it be best for you to remain here?”

She drew herself up, eyes flashing. “Why does every male I’ve met lately think I am delicate?”

Desolas snorted, reaching out to help her to her feet. “You’re bearing new life. All we can do is watch and protect. It’s humbling, so we try to contain you. Makes us feel important.”

Elizabeth laughed and stood, steadying herself with a hand on Desolas’s arm. Rubbing the small of her back, she glanced down when Zan let out a groan. Her assistant staggered to his feet, swaying a bit as he tried to regain his bearings. He turned slowly to face Elizabeth, then stared blankly at Desolas.

“I’m seeing things,” he decided after a moment’s study.

“No, actually, you’re not. This is General Desolas Arterius, and he’s a…” she stopped abruptly. With a small frown, she turned to look up at Desolas. “I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t ask what you are. Or is that rude? I’m sorry, you are the first alien I’ve ever spoken with.”

Desolas inclined his head, “I am a turian. Come, we should make for your labs before the batarians come looking for their companions.” After introductions were made and the nurse was on her feet, Desolas led the way to the labs, discussing racial politics with Elizabeth.

“So, the Council doesn’t know why the batarians cut off contact? Wouldn’t they have sent someone to find out what happened?” Elizabeth was asking as they reached the labs.

Desolas scanned the entryway before leading her in, answering, “They did. The Spectre sent in went missing. The final transmission supposedly had an explanation, but the Council never released it.”

“Huh. Seems like every government likes keeping secrets from it’s people,” Elizabeth said wryly.

Desolas snorted, then stopped as his scans picked up people in the rooms ahead.

“How many people should be here now?” he asked under his breath.

“None. I gave everyone the week off. Zan? Did anyone talk about finishing any projects?” Elizabeth turned to check with Zan,who shrugged.

“Wait here,” Desolas said, easing around the corner. Keeping his pistol at the ready, he slowly worked his way to the main doors of the lab. Glancing around the door frame, he surveyed the room. 

He saw four humans standing in the center of the room, their backs to the door. They appeared to be studying some datapads and arguing. Easing back, he went back to the waiting humans.

“Four of your colleagues seem to be discussing some diagnostics,” he informed them.

“Huh,” Elizabeth said. “Well, the information you want is in that lab, so let’s see who’s here.”

Desolas stepped aside, letting the smaller woman take the lead. She started up a running commentary about her colleagues as they approached the lab. Desolas tuned her out as the humans in the lab turned toward the door at their arrival. Elizabeth stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the small group.

“Jack?” she whispered, shocked.

“Hello again, Lizzie,” the taller of the two men said, turning slowly to the door.

Elizabeth paled and took a half step toward Desolas. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been reading your reports, Lizzie dear. You’re sitting on a wonderful gift and you can’t see it,” he said, sauntering around the desk toward the group. 

His companions had turned back to their work when Jack started speaking and now began to pack up their equipment. Desolas was interested to note that they didn’t seem alarmed by his presence. In fact, they didn’t seem to see him at all. Desolas kept his eye on the small group as he eased his pistol back out of the holster. 

Elizabeth’s eyes widened in shock. “The statue? You can’t! It’s too dangerous!”

Jack snarled and drew a pistol. Desolas drew a bead on Jack, eyes narrowed. He considered just shooting the human, but but he wasn’t certain of the dynamics of the situation. He was slightly amused to note that Zan was trying to sneak around behind Jack.

“You just don’t understand! If we could harness the power there, humanity could rule the galaxy! Wait, you… you’re pregnant? Is it his?” he screamed, whipping the pistol around to point at Zan. The younger man froze, eyes locked on the weapon. 

“You whore!” Jack spat. “I knew I couldn’t trust you!”

That decided Desolas. He fired and struck the man in the leg. Jack screamed in pain, and Elizabeth let out a soft whimper. Desolas glanced over, and was stunned to see her holding her side, her hand centered on a growing stain of red. He looked back at the sound of the far doors closing. Jack and his companions were gone.

Nurse McDonough knelt by Elizabeth’s side, suddenly seeming to find her courage. She barked out an order to Zan to grab a first-aid kit, and the man rushed off. Desolas knelt next to the women, pulling out his personal kit.

“The medicines won’t work with her, but there’s bandages. Do what you can.” He rose to leave and paused when he felt a hand on his boot. He met Elizabeth’s eyes.

“Kill him. I don’t know what he’s planning, but he has to be stopped. No matter what.” She closed her eyes against the pain and let him go.

Desolas nodded and followed the blood trail out of the room.


	2. Chapter 2

Desolas moved quickly through the building, following the trail of fresh blood. As he focused on the sounds of retreat leading him on, Saren came over the comms.

“General. The batarians have been cleared out. We have the location where they’re keeping the captives. The humans seem shaken, but are welcoming our help. I’m going to take… I mean, permission to go with the human military to retrieve the captives?” 

Desolas grinned when the team started gently ribbing Saren for the slip. He let them continue for a moment, then murmured “settle down.” The chatter instantly ceased. “Take your squad, Saren. Stop by the quartermaster on the Sevrum for supplies. I’ll authorize it.”

“I- Yes, Sir!” Saren replied, and Desolas was amused to hear the glee in his brother’s subvocals. 

There was a thud ahead, and he paused, refocusing on the hallway before him. Easing around the corner, he saw the hallway was empty, and one of the doors on the far end hung halfway off its hinges. He swore under his breath and moved down the hall, carefully checking the rooms as he passed. When he reached the door, he cautiously peered out on the grounds. Some humans were loading the strange statue onto a ship, while an older man looked to be tending Jack’s wound. Desolas burst out the door to take cover behind a barricade. He heard one of the humans call out in alarm, then leaned out to fire. The humans were shouting frantically, some firing back, but Desolas heard one voice calmly order the ship to take off. Eyes narrowed, he leaned out of cover again, and saw the hold doors close as the ship started to rise. He fired on the ship, knowing that it was futile. He opened his comms to the Sevrum.

“There is a human vessel leaving my location. Tag it for capture,” he ordered. As the confirmation came through, he turned and started back to the labs. He wanted to talk to Elizabeth about what had happened.

As he approached the lab, he was shoved into the wall by a harried-looking woman who rushed into the lab. Concerned, he followed in her wake. Several of the devices that had cluttered the desks had been shoved onto the floor, and Elizabeth had been placed in their stead. She was on her back with her feet on the table, while the nurse held a wad of cloth to the wound on her side. Desolas approached slowly, not wanting to interfere with the medics, when Elizabeth spotted him. She held out her hand, fingers beckoning. He paused, then approached her uninjured side. She immediately grabbed his hand, then gave a small smile when he jumped, surprised. 

“Is Jack-?” she began, eyes locked on his face.

“He’s wounded, but they escaped with the statue.” Her eyes closed, and she let out a long hiss of pain. Her grip on his hand tightened until it was almost painful, then she relaxed slowly.

The woman who had shoved past Desolas looked up at their conversation. Pointing at Desolas, she barked, “You. Alien. Keep her focused on her breathing. You,” she continued, shifting her glare to Elizabeth, “Do your breathing exercises. This baby doesn’t feel like waiting any more.”

Desolas reared back in shock, but continued to hold Elizabeth’s hand. He looked toward the doctor, then quickly back at Elizabeth’s face. _Red blood doesn’t look right._

She seemed amused by his discomfort, and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “Stay with me, General,” she said with a half laugh, eyes dancing.

He let his annoyance rumble through his subvocals, but stayed by her side. He contacted his squad, ordering them to check in at the Sevrum, then help the colonists where they could. Abrudas found him nearly two hours, still holding Elizabeth’s hand. His second seemed content to lean against the wall and observe, occasionally fiddling with her omnitool.

Doctor Gaines, Desolas had finally managed to learn her name, finally seemed satisfied, and passed a bundled up, bloody infant to Elizabeth. She released his hand to take it, and doctor Gaines smiled and said, “Congratulations. It’s a girl.”

Elizabeth looked into the face of her baby and laughed. “Andra. My precious Andra.”

The nurse who had stayed by Elizabeth’s side for the whole ordeal caught Dr. Gaines’ eye and shook her head. The two women studied Elizabeth’s wound for a while, then Dr Gaines looked up and met Elizabeth’s eyes. The older woman opened her mouth to speak, and Elizabeth shook her head, closing her eyes. The women glanced at Desolas and moved away from the bed. Desolas studied Elizabeth’s face, worried. She was a fighter, but seeing Jack had struck her hard.

Her eyes opened, and he could see the steel in her gaze. “I’m dying. My child can not be raised by that lunatic. I have no family. Will you…?”

He felt a pang of grief at her words, and squeezed her hand lightly. “It will cause problems for both our people, but if that is your wish, I will see it done.” Turning his wrist so he could activate his omnitool, he set it to record. “A verbal record of your will would suffice, if your people witnessed it.”

Elizabeth watched his hands, then cleared her throat. “I, Elizabeth Shepard, charge this turian to raise my daughter as his own.” She hissed in pain again, then continued, “Do whatever is needed to care for her to the best of your ability.”

“I, Desolas Arterius, take on guardianship of this human child. I will raise her as my own. I will see she is brought up to bring honor to both her blood people, and the turian people.” He ended the recording, then studied Elizabeth’s face.

She was pale, shockingly so. She moved her hand to grab his wrist again, but dropped it partway through the motion. “Can I leave her a message?”

Desolas nodded, watching as the nurse took the baby off to the other side of the room. He activated his omnitool again, holding it out for her.

“Andra. My child.” She gave a weak laugh and continued, “This is your mother speaking. I’m sorry I won’t be there to watch you grow, to see you discover the universe around you. What will you be? A scientist like your mother? A soldier like mine? A chef, like my father?” she chuckled and shook her head, “Know that, whatever path you choose, I am proud of you. I love you dearly. Remember, we are never promised tomorrow, so live each day as the gift it is.

“You must know, there is a darkness in your blood, as well as light. Your father, Jack Harper. He is a mercenary and a zealot. Please, do not seek him out. There is a darkness in him that will consume you should you get too close. Know that I am leaving you with the general to protect you, until you are strong enough to stand on your own. But don’t be afraid to lean on a companion. We are not meant to live solitary lives.

“Go into this crazy, mad, dangerous, wonderful universe and stamp your name into the stars. You can do anything, anything, you set your mind to. Don’t be afraid to love, but don’t let love blind you to the flaws of your partner. Live your life with compassion. You are a child of the stars, and I love you. Go make the galaxy a better place.”

She smiled wanly into the recorder, “I'm sorry I can't be there for you. We are tiny things, clinging to life in this vast universe of cosmic forces and things often don't go according to plan. I had planned to be there for your first everything. I'd planned to show and teach you so much. I wanted to give you all the support and love I never had. I'm afraid for you, and I have hope for you. I hope you are strong enough to be kind. I hope you are brave enough to ask for help. I hope you can find enough happiness to see you through the hard times. My child, you are worth everything to me; never forget that. I love you.

“Be kind. Be humble. Trust your instincts. Never let anyone tell you that your feelings are not valid or that you do not deserve to exist. You determine who you are, not other people. Please make friends, please never let anyone take your smile away. Sing in the shower, jump in puddles, do the things that make you happy. Spend your money on experiences, not things. Find someone who lifts you up rather then puts you down. Know that relationships are like a three-legged race and that no one is perfect and both parties have to put effort in to move ahead. Use the buddy system. Stare at the stars, watch sunrises or sunsets. Be you. Be you with all the intensity and unashamed joy of a super-nova. There's so much more I want to tell you. So much more I want to share with you, but I can’t. I know there are times you're going to be angry at me for being gone. I'm angry at myself for going. I wish I could stay. I wish so very much I could stay. If you don't remember a single thing of what I've said then please remember this. I love you. I love you more then all the stars in the sky, more then the sun and the moon. I love you with every breath you breath, and every beat of your little heart. I love you and nothing will ever change that. I'd say make me proud kid, but you already have. Oh you already have.”

She trailed off, eyes unfocused. Desolas saved the recording and held her hand again. She squeezed it softly, then her arm went limp as the breath sighed out of her lungs. Desolas keened his sorrow at her loss, causing the humans and Abrudas to glance his way. Dr. Gaines strode over and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry. But she didn’t die alone, and we will ensure you have no obstacles in raising her daughter.”

He nodded and turned to leave. He collected the infant, absently filing away the nurse’s instruction to support the infant’s head, and signaled to Abrudas. He strode out into the hallway, hearing the footsteps of his lieutenant and one of the humans behind him as he made his way back to the ship.

He heard Abrudas behind him, informing Antoria of his arrival, and of the infant in his care. The doctor announced her intent of traveling with them to Palaven, to ensure the health of the child. He heard her give orders that seemed nonsensical to him, requests for “formula”, “diapers”, a “crib”. He knew he should probably pay attention to the translations, but he couldn’t focus. He was met at the ship by Antoria, who took one look at his expression, and gently guided him to her quarters.

Antoria watched as Desolas carefully lay the infant on the bed,seeming loath to stop touching her. “The human made quite an impression, Lokaal. Tell me about her.” Desolas flared his mandibles in a pained smile, still watching the tiny form on the bed.

“She was a warrior to the core, for all that she chose to be a scholar. She…” he shook his head, and opened her final message on his omni-tool.

Antoria watched the message, recognizing the strength that Desolas mourned. She lay a hand on his carapace, looking down on the infant, mind already prepared for the consequences. “You can’t raise her alone. And Saren is young, yet.”

Desolas whipped around at her words, neck arched, fury written in every line. Antoria smiled, “Peace, Lokaal. I’m offering to help. A young female will always need a mother. And very few will accept the garvansaag you formed with her mother.” She reached up to cup his face as he lowered his forehead to hers. “I accept you and your family into my life,” she whispered.

“Yes. And I, you,” he replied. He stay there, hands drifting to her hips, breathing in the scent of her for several moments. The intimate moment was interrupted by the baby fussing. Desolas sighed and stepped away, carefully picking her up and resting her against his keel. 

Antoria smiled softly at the scene, heart warming at the thought of watching him be father to her children alongside this strange foundling he brought into her life. Shouldering the responsibility of command, she set those thoughts aside for a moment and left to go search out Abrudas. The Sevrum had been recalled to Palaven while Citadel forces would be coming in to aid the humans and see them welcomed to the galactic community. 

Desolas’s team wandered in, exhausted from the fight and the relief efforts. They left brief reports, to be expanded upon as they traveled, and collapsed in the common room. Saren boarded last, practically vibrating with the excitement of his first command and solo mission. The captives had been freed with minimal effort, the batarians guarding the compound fleeing once armed opponents arrived. 

Saren moved through the ship, staying out of the way as the crew prepared for transport, looking for Desolas. He knew he could start writing up his debriefing, but he wanted to talk to his brother. He ducked around a small cluster of humans, briefly wondering why they were on the ship, then knocked at Desolas’s door. Without waiting for a response, he opened the door, already talking.

“These humans are interesting. They almost-” he stopped abruptly, finally noticing the small bundle his brother carried. “What is that?”

Before he could get a response, the bundle moved, a tiny pink appendage emerging from the blankets with a small cooing sound.

Desolas grinned and let the hand wrap around his talon. The bundle burbled in what sounded like happiness and Desolas looked up at Saren. “This is Andra Shepard. Her mother died after charging me to raise her.”

Saren stood in the doorway, mandibles lax, blinking in confusion. “What.”

Desolas chuckled and pulled Saren into the room, the door hissing closed behind. Saren stopped when Desolas stopped providing momentum and stared at his brother. “We’ve only known about these humans for, what, half a day? And you already adopted one. How? Why?” he sputtered to a stop as the infant laughed and cooed up at Desolas again. The tiny hands were reaching for his mandibles now, and Desolas kept flicking them at her. Saren rolled his eyes and flung himself onto the bed.

“Spirits, Desolas! How are you planing on raising an alien alone, anyway?” Saren growled in frustration.

Desolas looked up at that. “Oh, right. Antoria and I are going to formalize our garvansaag when we reach Palaven.”

Saren gaped at Desolas. “I WAS GONE FOR TWELVE HOURS! What the-? How-? What-? TWELVE HOURS, Desolas! I-” he sputtered to a stop again, getting up to pace the room. He swiped a hand over his fringe, glancing sidelong at Desolas, who settled onto the bed to give Saren room. Finally Saren stopped and stared intently at the wall. “What about-” he took a deep breath and started over. “What about me?”

Desolas looked up, shocked. Carefully laying the infant on the bed, he stood, puling Saren around to face him. Cupping the back of Saren’s head, he rested his forehead against his brother’s. “You are family. You will stay with me until you can get your own place. I told you when we left I was not going to leave you, and I meant it.”

Saren slowly began to relax a his brother’s words, then tensed up again. 

“I will not see either of you hurt. And Antoria agrees with me. Besides, I’m pretty sure she could beat me in a fight.” Desolas chuckled. 

Saren decided to keep silent. He trusted his brother, but he was unsure of how things would play out. He turned at a knock at the door and made to leave. Desolas watched him carefully, but said nothing.

The human at the door seemed surprised to see Saren, but stepped aside to let him pass. Saren made his way to the crew lounge, thinking these new events over. He was happy for Desolas, truly, but this was all happening far too quickly for Saren to be pleased with the course of events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas!
> 
> I'm not dead! Have more story! (Please don't hate me for taking for-fucking-ever to get this out)
> 
> Edit: I will be hiking the Appalachian Trail starting mid-February. It'll be 5-8 months with no regular internet. I'll be doing what I can on this and my other works, but no guarantees. (I'm so sorry)


	3. Chapter 3

As the crew of the Sevrum began the landing procedures, Desolas paid rapt attention to Dr Gaines’s lecture on the care and raising of a human infant. It was fairly similar to raising an infant turian, though he was told that she would be much weaker than a turian infant, and for longer. She had said there were several books on the subject, but when they attempted to translate them, they were gibberish. Until they could fix the issues with the text translation, he was dependent on the humans’ expertise.

But it had been made official. Andra Shepard was his child, as far as the Hierarchy was concerned. The humans who had accompanied them would join the scholars in Cipritine to add their knowledge to the turians’, and that meant that they would be accessible to him and his daughter.

Desolas spent the first few minutes once the ship landed arranging for the garvansaag ceremony, and for time off for both himself and Antoria. Once done, he gathered up Andra and started toward the bridge. Once the door to his quarters opened, he was immediately approached by Dr. Gaines.

“We might have a problem. We were supposed to be getting a shipment of formula for Andra, but there are some delays while the politicians deal with getting humans out on the galactic stage. They won’t send anything for months.”

Desolas felt the first twinge of worry. “How much food do we have for her?”

Dr. Gaines sighed, “Maybe a month, month and a half. I’ll see what I can do, but there is no shipping between our people yet, so it doesn’t look likely that I can get some in.”

The Sevrum’s doctor, Tulius, chimed in. “There might be other issues, as well. Unless you keep her in an envirosuit her whole life, Palaven’s radiation will kill her. Not to mention, she’s levo, and infants have a bad habit of placing everything they encounter into their mouths.” Desolas groaned. He hadn’t thought of that. “Fortunately, Dr. Gaines and I have possibly come up with a solution. We just need to run a few more tests, and then we can implement them.” 

“Good. As quickly as you can, please.” He continued on his way, signaling to Saren as he passed to collect his things.

Saren rose and trotted after him. “I’ve put in for leave after the ceremony. I’ll transfer you to General Septimus Oraka. He’ll see you through the rest of your training,” Desolas said once Saren had caught up.

Saren started to protest, but stopped himself. Arguing with a superior officer was a good way into a dead-end position, even if that superior officer was one’s brother. Instead, he sighed and accepted his brother’s decision. Oraka was a good general, just more cautious than Desolas.

Desolas watched as Saren accepted the decision and grinned to himself. Saren had been chafing under the other commands and needed to serve under a competent officer to truly show what he was capable of. He had discussed the transfer with Oraka on the return trip, and Oraka was going to place him in charge of a small team once the transfer was completed. Saren had shown a gift for command on Shanxi, and an aptitude for solo work. Oraka would help him on the path to becoming a Spectre.

———————————————————————————————

A few days later, Saren watched, solemn, as Desolas and Antoria pledged themselves to each other. He held the infant, Andra, and found himself strangely drawn to protect her. He guessed that it was an evolutionary protection, as she wouldn’t be able to do anything to protect herself for several more months yet. 

The doctors and geneticists had found a way to modify her genes to survive Palavan’s harsh radiation and consume dextro foods without harm, though the humans thought she’d be short for a human as a result. She hadn’t seemed to take any harm that Saren could see, and she wriggled and crooned to herself throughout the ceremony. The humans had called her a “remarkably happy baby”, claiming that most human infants spent large amounts of time crying loudly. He couldn’t believe that anything as tiny as Andra could possibly be as loud as they were implying.

After the ceremony, Saren stayed toward the back, not wanting to intrude on Desolas and Antoria’s well-wishers. He had set Andra to nap in her crib and was monitoring her vitals with his omni-tool, as she had fallen asleep and he didn’t want to continue carrying her around. He had just grabbed a plate when he noticed a couple of humans skirting the crowd. His eyes narrowed and he signaled to get Desolas’s attention. There were no humans invited to the garvaansaag ceremony, and no reason for them to be here.

Desolas’s eyes narrowed when he spotted the humans, and he signaled for Saren to follow them discretely. Saren nodded, and allowed himself to be lost in the crowd. When he emerged in a back hallway, he swore to himself. He had misjudged, and had lost visual on the humans. He walked around for a bit, trying to see if he could catch them, when his omni-tool signaled an alarm. Andra was awake. Saren sighed and went to go care for her. It was his brother’s ceremony, after all, and he didn’t want to admit to losing the humans just yet.

As he approached the room set aside for the infant, he slowed and drew even with the doorframe. He could hear voices in the room, and they lacked the flanged tones of a turian. Cautiously, hepeered around the frame. The humans he had seen earlier were standing in the middle of the room, and one, a taller male, was holding Andra. 

Saren froze. He couldn’t confront the humans without the risk of hurting the infant, and knew that if he left for help the humans would be lost. He pulled his head back, breathing hard. He heard the humans climb out the window, and slowly, cautiously, he followed them. The humans were climbing into a vehicle with a large covered object in the back. Saren felt both repulsed by and attracted to the item. Shaking his head to clear it, he watched as they drove off. He marked the direction they went as he stole a delivery truck from a nearby store. He sent the owner a message apologizing and directing him to contact his brother for an explanation, and followed the humans out to Old Cipritine.

The humans came to a stop outside Temple Palaven and unloaded the object from the back. Saren noted that it took all four of them to lift it as he drove past. He turned down a side street and got out. Programming the autopilot to return the vehicle to the store, he broke into one of the vacant warehouses across from the temple. Moving silently, he approached the door to access the roof. He crouched low, and peered over the edge. The humans had brought the object into the temple. Saren considered the distance between his perch and the temple roof. He backed up enough to take a running start and leapt to the temple roof. He tucked his head, and rolled upon landing. He froze, waiting to hear if the humans were aware of his presence. 

After waiting ten minutes, Saren found an entrance on the roof and slid into the temple proper. He wondered at that. The temple had been sealed centuries before. Saren couldn’t remember why, exactly, but the order of Valluvian priests who had lived there had died out about the same time. No one should have been in the temple at all, and all entrances should still have been sealed. He reached the railing around the mezzanine he was on, and carefully looked over.

The humans had the object in the center of the main hall. It was a strange statue, curving and cold. It was emitting a blue light which bathed the humans around it. There were several dozen of them standing around the chamber, and the human who had caught Saren’s attention stood in the center and addressed the crowd. Saren activated his omni-tool and sent a message to Desolas. He hoped his brother could receive the live feed.

“These aliens can’t be trusted! They have poisoned our people! Our children have been branded outsiders before their first year by the incompetence of the alien scientists! The only way humanity will be safe and thrive in the galaxy is to kill them all!”

As the small crowd erupted in cheers, Saren backed down the hall. He froze when a voice beside him said, “Well, well, well. What have we here?” A human female stepped out of a shadow, pistol pointed at Saren. He debated attacking her, when he caught movement from the corner of his eye. Turning his head slightly, he saw another human pointing a pistol at him. He raised his hands, showing he was unarmed. “Glad you’re feeling cooperative, turian.” the woman said, gesturing with the pistol that he should head down the stairs to the main chamber. 

When the two humans and Saren entered the main room, all eyes turned to him. _All but one_ Saren thought, noticing one human was apparently running tests on the device. The man who had been declaring the death of all aliens looked at the one doing tests, as if for guidance, then shrugged and turned to the crowd again. The two humans holding Saren captive shared a glance and returned their attention to the orator.

“See how they act? Slinking around like thieves in the night! We will cleanse the galaxy of their evil, and humanity will reign supreme! First, we will rid their taint from the innocent they have corrupted!” The crowd cheered as one of them brought an infant to place upon a table at the base of the statue. _Andra!_ The orator drew a knife from the sheath on his hip and raised it high. 

The woman guarding Saren started. “Jack! You can’t kill a _baby_! That’s barbaric!”

Jack ignored her and brought the knife down with a yell.

————————————————————————

Desolas tuned the well-wishers out when his omni-tool signaled an incoming message. Moving aside, he opened it. The message contained a video and a short note from Saren. Desolas listened to the human rant, and snapped at Antoria, “I need three squads at Temple Palaven, now.That human who shot Elizabeth stole Andra.”

Antoria nodded, walking a short distance off to arrange for the forces needed. Desolas strode off, jumping into the nearest transport and following Saren’s signal. He trusted Antoria and his squad to follow and tried not to think of the worst.

————————————————————————

Saren shoved the woman aside and leapt for the infant. He felt the blade draw a line of fire down the plates on his back, but the child was uninjured. He held her to his keel and ran. He heard fighting break out behind him as some humans tried to follow him and others attacked their fellows, protesting the sacrifice of a child.

Running full out down the main hallway of the temple, he saw the doors burst open and turian soldiers come pouring in. He shouldered the soldiers aside and kept running. He didn’t stop until he saw his brother. He gestured at the infant he carried, who was cooing happily at him. “Desolas. You like the troublemakers, don’t you?”

Desolas looked at him, and called the medic over. “You’re hurt. Stay and start your mission report. Your part in this is done.” Saren looked at him, considered arguing, and nodded. He sat and made faces at the infant while the medic bandaged his back.

Desolas drew his pistol and entered the temple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead! Neither is the story! It's just, depression is a bitch, and inspiration is not easy sometimes. But the story progresses!


	4. Chapter 4

As Desolas entered Temple Palaven, he heard the sounds of fighting in the main chamber. He paused, listening. The temple was a warren of old hallways and passages and he thought he heard something off to one side. _There_. He saw where a portion of the wall wasn’t quite flush, and slowly pulled open the hidden door. It opened on a passageway that lead down to the bowels of the temple. 

Checking that his assault rifle was secured, Desolas slipped into the passage. Straining to listen, he tried to guess how many had gone this way. It was no good. The passage echoed and reechoed every footfall, so he couldn’t tell if there was only one or one hundred ahead. Coming to a corner, he slowly eased his head around. He counted four humans and another of the statues they had brought. Pulling back, he listened. They appeared to be arguing.

“I can’t believe you, Jack! That was a human baby! And one of the skull-faces had more compassion than you about it! And you! Kidnapping! Did you know what he was planning, Ben?” The woman’s voice was strident in her fury.

The second male, who had helped capture Saren, spoke next. “Eva, all Dr. Qian told me was we needed a baby. I never asked why!”

The orator, Jack, interrupted them. “Enough. The temple is overrun, and Qian hasn’t found what we came here for. We need to evac and plan for damage control.”

The fourth human called over from the statue, “Ben, see if you can find a switch. I think I’ve figured out how to use it….”

Desolas looked around the corner again. The humans were clustered around the statue now, their backs to him. The younger man, Ben, was moving closer when Jack said “Wait. No, Ben, don’t!”

Lightning erupted from the statue, sheathing Ben in electricity. Ben screamed in agony as Jack ran in, shouting “I’ve got- AAAAuughh!” The lightning leapt to Jack, and Desolas could see it crackling from his eyes. Eva screamed, but Dr. Qian seemed unaffected. He walked around the two men lying on the ground and almost delicately picked up a sphere from the center of the statue. As abruptly as it appeared, the lightning ceased. 

Mockingly, Qian bowed to the men as his eyes seemed to glow. “Thank you for your cooperation.” Then he turned away from his fellows and went deeper into the temple with the sphere. Eva had rushed over to the side of the two men, and Desolas called for reinforcements. He stepped around the corner, prepared to offer aid, when Eva saw and screamed in rage.

She snatched the knife from Jack’s hip and charged at Desolas. Without hesitation, he brought his pistol up and shot her between the eyes. As she fell, he heard a strangled voice call “Eva!” faintly. Stepping over the woman’s body, Desolas went to check the two men.

Ben was dead, but there was something about the corpse that made Desolas uneasy. He turned to Jack. The man was struggling to stand, moaning faintly. Desolas knocked him out with the but of his pistol. Three soldiers came down the tunnel, weapons at low ready. Desolas signaled one to get Jack to the medic, and lead the other two down the passage after Qian.

Desolas and his companions, Abrudas and Octaeus, silently traveled down the corridor, following the echoing sounds of Qian’s footfalls. There were no side passages or rooms off the hall, and as they moved away from the statue, no light. They flipped on their flashlights on their weapons and continued on. 

Over the comm, Desolas heard the accounting from the main hall. The humans had all fought, even though none were armed. They continued to fight until they were unconscious or dead. Of the nearly fifty humans in the hall, only three survived. They had been restrained and were being transported, along with Jack Harper, back to the embassy for care.

The tunnel abruptly let out onto a large plateau and the three turians fanned out. Desolas couldn’t see Qian, but then again, he had been given a pretty large head start. Desolas signaled them forward, and they walked to the far edge of the clearing, weapons ready, panning back and forth to cover each other. Desolas heard the rumbling of a ship’s engine from ahead. He looked up, and saw one of the human shuttles taking off. He activated his comm, and shouted “One of the humans from the temple is in a human shuttle, leaving my location. Shoot it down.”

After hearing the affirmative, he signaled the other two to return with him through the tunnel. He wanted to mark its location so it could be sealed again. As they returned, Abrudas and Octaeus chatted amiably, weapons held loosely in low ready. Desolas allowed it as he wasn’t anticipating any trouble, either. As they approached the chamber, they heard a scraping sound ahead. Desolas signaled a halt. Quintus should have left with Harper and the others. There should only have been the dead behind.

They stood in the passage, waiting. They heard the sound again. It sounded like someone walking, dragging their feet. Desolas edged closer to the entrance, Abrudas and Octaeus moving to cover him. As he came in view of the chamber, he saw two figures wandering around. He stepped forward, intending to speak to them, when they turned to him.

He stumbled back, horrified. The two figures were Eva and Ben, but they no longer looked as they had. There were glowing blue lines over their exposed skin and their eyes glowed with a light the same color as the statues. The two humans opened their mouths and emitted a sound between a scream and a synthetic tone. They charged the turians.

“Spirits, what happened to them?” Octaeus asked as they opened fire.

“Shut up and shoot!” Abrudas yelled back.

Once the two were dead, Desolas contacted the Primarch. “Sir. Some of the corpses have altered. They tried to attack us. I think the statues were responsible. Prepare to blow the temple.” He sent an image of the two bodies.

“Spirits, Desolas. How close do you want to cut it?” Primarch Pavius asked.

“Once you get here, blow it. Don’t wait for us to get clear.” He looked at his crew, and they nodded their agreement. These things could not be allowed to escape.

Leaving the chamber, Desolas took point, with Abrudas tailing. There were more ahead. Many more. _At an estimate, there are forty-seven of these. There is no cover. If the two below are a good marker, these move quickly. We won’t be able to stand against them. If we can get to the exit, we might have a chance._ He nodded to himself. “We’re going to try to make the exit. Octaeus and I will go first and cover you, Abrudas. Once you’re in the hall, cover Octaeus.” The two nodded. Desolas eased into the main chamber, covering right and low, with Octaeus moving left and high.

They opened fire on the misshapen things, while Abrudas ran for the exit. Once she was in cover behind the doorway, Desolas signaled Octaeus. The former corpses, now being assaulted from either side, roared in anger and confusion. Desolas noted the synthetic tones again. As Octaeus reached cover, Desolas headed towards the exit, maintaining a steady cover of suppressing fire. 

As he reached the door, he signaled the other two to fall back. Octaeus placed his store of grenades on the left side of the hallway while Abrudas did the same on the right. When Desolas was clear and the leading edge of the monstrosities were in the kill zone, they detonated the grenades. Keeping their weapons ready, they continued to back down the hall.

Once they were clear, they ran to the command truck that pulled up down the street. Leaping in, Desolas heard Pavius give the order to fire. As the truck barreled down the street, one of the dreadnoughts in orbit opened fire, and soon the temple was only so much burning rubble.

Back in Cipritine proper, Saren watched Desolas head to the nursery while Pavius and the humans tried to figure out what happened. Saren was providing all the information he could, but he left after they made him start repeating himself. Following his brother into the nursery, he saw Desolas holding Andra, cradling her as she held onto his mandible and chattered.

“Is she alright? They didn’t hurt her?” Saren asked, suddenly anxious.

“No, she’s fine. I just…” he sighed. “What in Oblivion was all that? I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it. It worries me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! More story!


	5. Chapter 5

The humans who had been at the temple were being sent back to Earth for punishment. Desolas felt that they should be executed on Palaven, but he kept his opinion to himself. The humans had an impressive military force for all that they had only been exploring the galaxy for less than a decade. Desolas didn’t want to stand against them in a fight. He felt that it was wiser to ally with them, and the Primarch agreed.

He was watching Jack Harper being loaded onto the Endeavor, when he heard someone come up beside him.

“General Desolas. Admiral Grissom.” The human leaned on the railing and watched the prisoners board. “Ass. Should have put a round in his head and called it a day.”

“Agreed. Unfortunately, our superiors don’t.”

“Yeah, well. ‘Ours is not to reason why/Ours is just to do or die.’”

Desolas looked at the man. “That sounded like a quote. What is it from?”

Grissom grunted. “Old poem. Charge of the Light Brigade. Based on a battle. Technology advanced, the ways wars were fought didn’t, and some idiot in the back sent his men to slaughter because the old ways are the best ways.” Grissom spat. “I’m not sure I can trust you turians, but the few I’ve seen are starting to change that. Don’t judge all of us by Harper. I’ll send ya some poems, teach ‘em to your kid.” He pushed off the railing and headed for the ship.

Desolas called after him “I’ll send you some of ours. It’s unusual to find another soldier who enjoys them.”

Grissom waved over his shoulder, and Desolas went to speak with the Primarch. He had been ordered to attend the council with the human representatives. 

“We have a problem.” Pavius announced as Desolas entered the room. “The human who stole a shuttle and fled, that…” he checked his notes “Shu Qian? He escaped. The shuttle made it to the relay, and we can find no sign of it. The humans have given his picture and description to CSEC, but I don’t think he’s headed to the Citadel.”

Antoria nodded. “I have the fleet searching for the shuttle. When we find it, you and the humans will be informed.”

The newly minted human ambassador, Anita Goyle, spoke up. “According to Harper, Qian was the mastermind behind this, but we think he was just trying to throw Qian under the bus to lighten his own sentence. Based on Saren’s recording, Qian didn’t force Harper to try to kill a child.”

The turians looked at her, blankly. “’Throw him under the bus’?” the Primarch asked, enunciating the phrase carefully.

“Oh. It’s an expression we use. It means to make someone else take the blame for a problem so you don’t get in trouble.” She consulted her datapad and continued. “As far as the turian requesting an adoption… under the circumstances, I won’t argue with the recording that was made, as it was made clear to us by Dr. Gaines that Ms Shepard made the initial request without coercion. We would like for her to be schooled in human customs, however, as that is her heritage. ”

Primarch Pavius added, “Several of the humans from Shanxi have expressed a desire to remain here, or move on to the Citadel. And we will welcome any instructors Earth wishes to send.”

Desolas sighed as the politicians continued. And now for the fidgety bits, the embassy, trade agreements, introducing humanity to the council, and on and on and on. Everyone here knows it’s going to be changed in a year, so why bother? I hate politics. He maintained a look of attention as he listed everything he would need to keep the humans happy about his adoption, and mentally started listing off what Saren would need in Oraka’s unit.

After three hours of discussion and translating euphemisms across species lines, the council was let go for the day. Desolas walked towards his home.

Entering, he saw Saren at the counter, eating and reviewing a datapad. Saren saw him just as he took a large bite of his dinner, waved, and swallowed loudly. “The whelp is napping, and Antoria said she was detained. She was going to pick up some toys and things with the doctor.”

Saren shrugged, and hopped off the stool. Cleaning his dishes, he called over his shoulder. “I can bunk at Wilihierax’s tonight if you want privacy.”

Desolas turned to glare at his brother, and Saren tried to look innocent. He failed, and Desolas laughed. “Go on, be off with you. Just remember your assignments. Just because you got in early doesn’t mean you can shirk your classes. You meet with General Oraka tomorrow at dawn.”

Saren laughed and bounded out the door. He had packed his things once Antoria let him know she was coming. He still wasn’t certain that this was the wisest course, but he was glad his brother was finally happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so there's going to be a bit of a wait for the next chapter as life drama just showed up (found a stray cat, trying to find his family and failing that, I want to get him introduced to the current menagerie). So, yeah, I haven't had a chance to write for a couple days.
> 
> (Also: intro of the rarest of pairs, but I ship it)


	6. Chapter 6

**2165, just outside Cipritine, Palaven**

Andra Shepard stared down the barrel of the sniper rifle. Keeping her breathing even, she focused on her target. Her world narrowed to that one point. Slowly releasing her breath, she squeezed the trigger. And watched as the log below the bottle exploded into splinters. She lowered the rifle, hunching her shoulders as she turned, bracing for the blow.

Her uncle, Saren, sighed. Taking the rifle from her, he started. "Andra. You said you would practice while I was on my mission. You haven't touched this rifle since I left, have you?" Subvocals thrumming with disappointment, he waited for her reply.   
The eight-year-old bowed her head. Turian culture demanded honesty and laying claim to one's mistakes. Despite being human, she had been raised to that standard. "No, Uncle" she almost whispered.  
The turian looked at the back of her head, mandibles flicking in amusement. "And why have you not practiced?" he asked, suspecting he knew the answer he would receive. His brother's foundling was very like he was at that age.

The child looked up at that. "Because if I practice I'll get better and soon I'll be really really good and you won't come and spent time with me any more" she said in a rush. She blushed and studied the ground again. "I miss you when you're gone" she whispered.   
Saren felt his brow plates rise at that. He had been expecting defiance, maybe even laziness, but not this. Training his subvocals into soothing tones, he asked "And what makes you think I'll stop coming to visit you when you no longer need training?"

"'Cause I heard Father telling Mother that you hate humans, an' that's why you said Lieutenant Anderson shouldn't be a Spectre."  
The turian sighed, and inwardly vowed to speak to his brother about this. "Lanura" he started, kneeling down so he was more on her level "Anderson acted in a way that compromised the mission. Our target, Dr. Qian, escaped with all the evidence we needed, and I can find no leads as to where he has fled. If Anderson had told me of his intentions to rescue one captive over capturing Qian, I would have vouched for his Spectre status. I don't hate humans, I hate those who act rashly, with no thought of the consequences of their actions. Now" he placed the rifle back in her hands "Hit your mark."

She picked up the rifle, sighted down the scope, and he was pleased to see her hit dead center of the bottle. He ruffled her hair, making her giggle. “Finish out the targets, Lanura, and we’ll go home.”

She grinned up at him, and fired off a last three rounds, each one hitting its mark cleanly. He growled and scooped her up, rifle clattering to the ground while she giggled wildly. Holding her over one shoulder like a sack, he asked her “So, how much did you practice while I was gone, truly?”

Still giggling, she replied “Every morning before breakfast, every afternoon, right after classes, and right before bed, if I could sneak past Father. Oh! And sometimes I go when Sehr Vakarian takes Garrus out, too. I’m better than Garrus, an’ he’s two years older.”

“And what does your mother think of this?” Saren asked as they packed up and started back towards the Arterius home.

“Mother doesn’t say anything. She just winks.” The child skipped happily alongside him for a while in silence, then she stopped and looked at him. “Mother doesn’t command a dreadnought anymore because of me, doesn’t she?”

Saren stopped when she did and met her gaze. He wondered at the change of direction. She was a very perceptive child, something must be going on. “No. She was promoted to Heirarch and helps make policy for the whole Navy, not just one ship.”

“Oh. She doesn’t seem happy, though.” She walked on, sounding philosophical.

Saren laughed and stroked her hair. “Lanura, she has to deal with politicians all day. She doesn’t like them, but she is doing a necessary job. She just complains to make herself feel better. Now, I’m hungry, and you are looking tasty!” 

Andra squealed happily and ran down the street. Saren caught her and scooping up the child and the bag, he carried her the final distance to the house.

As he approached the door, Heirarch Antoria stood up from her seat on the porch and held the door open for them. Saren nodded his thanks, dropping the bag on the table. Carrying the exhausted child upstairs, he lay her down in her bed and twitched the curtain closed.

Walking downstairs, he signaled Antoria to meet him at the firepit. The two turians sat, and Antoria handed Saren a mug of chava. They studied each other over the rims of their mugs. “Being a Spectre agrees with you.” Antoria broke the silence. Before Saren could respond, she continued. “Who’ve you been bedding?”

Saren looked embarrassed. Trying to hide behind his mug of chava, he mumbled something. Antoria stared at him, browplates raised. He sighed and gave in. “Aria T’Loak, on Omega. I needed information, she needed support and things just… happened.” 

Antoria looked at him. “And how long ave things been ‘just happening’?”

At the front of the house, they could hear Desolas entering the house and heading upstairs. Saren sighed. “About three years, whenever I go to Omega.”

Antoria considered this. Then she reached over and swatted the back of his head. “You know better.”

She broke off as Desolas entered the garden, a fond expression on her face. Desolas walked over to her and pressed his forehead to hers. “Hello.” he whispered.

Antoria reached up and placed her hand on his cheek. She nuzzled his forehead and spoke in soft tones. “Your brother is being stupidly male.”

Desolas sighed. “Oh? What now?”

Saren ripped up a handful of grass and threw it at his brother. “Spectre business.”

“With Aria T’loak,” Antoria added.

Desolas looked at his brother, placed a hand on Antoria’s cheek and murmured “One moment.” He walked over to Saren and hauled his brother to his feet. Grappling, the two turians fell to the ground, laughing and rolling over each other, each trying to get the upper hand.

——————————————————————————————

Andra packed her datapad carefully in her bag and made her way out of the classroom. She checked the hallway before leaving the room, a hard-learned habit, now. All she saw was a cleaner down the hall. She relaxed. Adults were alright, it was her peers she was concerned about. She was an excellent student, but only really had one friend. She set out on the short walk to the transit station, already planning on dragging Garrus out for more firearms practice, when she heard them.

A group of older turian children, all much bigger than her, were waiting along her path. She realized that she couldn’t turn back without appearing weak, and one way around was blocked off by the back of a building. Eyes scanning the area, she looked for a way out. The building had no doors or windows, and the other way was taken up by a large lake. She grinned to herself and kept walking.

“Hey, human!” the leader of the little clique called. Andra looked up, acting surprised to see them.

The group moved closer, and Andra swallowed. She knew she had to time everything just right, or she would get into another fight. She had managed to keep the worst of her abuses away from her parents’ knowledge, but bruises were harder to hide. The group surrounded her and she studied them quietly. 

The leader shoved against her shoulder, hard. She staggered with it, but said nothing. 

“No one wants you here, human,” he snarled, drawing back a fist.

She nodded softly, then shoved aside the turian to her right. Surprised, the turian fell, and Andra bolted for the lake. She could hear the shouts coming from behind her, but she didn’t bother looking back. She knew they were chasing her. Taking a deep breath, she jumped into the lake and swam as far out as she could. When she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, she slowly popped her head above the water. The group was clustered around the edge of the water, frantically poking at the surface with sticks. As she watched, an adult, Andra couldn’t see who, chivied the kids off, overriding their protests.

Andra grinned to herself, and swam off toward the far shore. She’d have to thank Dr Gaines for teaching her to swim later. She let her mind wander as she swam, trying to figure out a new schedule. She hauled herself out and looked around. She was only a few blocks away from Dr Gaines’ clinic, and decided to stop by, and hopefully get some dry clothes.

As she approached the clinic, she waved a Wiliheirax, who was planting some new flowers in the raised beds around the clinic. He nodded when he saw her, then did a double take. 

“Again?” he asked, his soft voice full of sympathy.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “I just want to get along, why don’t they?”

Wiliheirax stood and ushered her into the clinic. “Wish I could tell ya, kid, I really do. But I don’t understand most people, that’s why I stick to flowers. Tell ya what,” he continued, as a nurse spotted them and rushed off, presumably in search of dry clothes or Dr Gaines. “Why don’t I tell ya some of the stunts your family’s pulled over the years?”

“’Kay.” She sat on a bench and thought a bit. “How about Patruus? What’s something he did?” She accepted a towel and a change of clothes and ducked behind a curtain to change.

“Well, ya know most of his stuff’s classified, what with him joining the Specters so young and all, but there was this one time he told me about…” he trailed off, thoughtful.

“What?” Andra asked, curious.

“Well, you was just a baby, and some extremist humans kidnapped you. Well, Saren followed them out to Temple Palaven and managed to sneak in and tell your bormah what they was up to. Granted, he got caught, but that was a good thing, as he was close enough to grab you and bolt. There was some more to it, but you’re still a little young to hear it all.”

“Absolutely,” Dr Gaines chimed in, causing both Andra and Wiliheirax to jump. Guiltily, Wiliheirax got up.

“I’ll just go finish up the planting,” he mumbled and slunk out. Dr Gaines watched him leave, then fixed Andra with a glare.

“And why are you here, instead of at home, young miss?”

Andra bowed her head. “I was running from some kids at school.”

Dr Gaines sighed. “Well, that’s certainly understandable. Come on, I have cookies, and I’ll put on some music so you can do your schoolwork. Now, call home and tell them where you are.” So saying, she led the way to an unused office.

Andra called her home, hoping to just leave a message. Unfortunately, her mother answered.

“Hi, monah! I’m at Dr Gaines’ clinic. I’m going to do my schoolwork here, and maybe have dinner,” she said brightly.

Antoria studied her, but before she could reply, there was a knock on the door.

Puzzled, Antoria answered the door. She was somewhat surprised to see several of Andra’s classmates looking absolutely devastated on her doorstep.

“What’s this?” she asked.

They all started speaking at once, voices overlapping as they wailed in distress. The only parts she could hear clearly was “We didn’t mean to!” and “Please don’t have us imprisoned!”.

“Wait,” she said finally. Sniffling, they silenced, staring up at her with a mixture of sorrow and fear on their faces. “One of you, explain what happened.”

“We were just giving her a hard time, and she went and flung herself in the lake. We didn’t know it was that bad, honest! We would just push her around a bit…”

Antoria narrowed her eyes. “I see. Return to your homes. I will be by with your punishments later.”

They ducked their heads and left. Antoria sighed and returned to her call. “You never said it was that bad. Several of your fellows think you killed yourself.” She raised a hand when Andra tried to interrupt. “We’ll discuss this later. Stay and have dinner with Dr Gaines.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I return with an update! Huzzah!
> 
> Comments and kudos are love.


	7. Chapter 7

The following day, Antoria led Andra around to the homes of her tormentors. The revelation that humans could swim was sufficiently impressive to the younger turians, and Antoria’s expression was sufficient to keep the elder turians from comment. She was aware that the children were merely repeating what their families were saying, but they were all bright enough to react to new information much faster.

Antoria had spoken with Dr Gaines and her crew to agree on an appropriate punishment. Every day after school, they would travel as a group to the human clinic, and study human behavior and history. It sounded like a dire punishment to the children involved, but Dr Gaines promised to make it entertaining for them. After all, the lesson they wanted them to learn was acceptance, not more hate.

Over the next few months, the children would go to the clinic with Andra and watch some form of human entertainment. Several adults would be close enough to elaborate on any concepts that didn’t translate well, but the children were quick to pick up on the different nuances. Indeed, the “punishment” grew in such popularity that most of their classmates joined in.

Andra soon found herself somewhat popular, her peers coming to realize that she was generous enough to help anyone who needed it in whatever way she could. This usually manifested in more favored snacks appearing for movie nights, and a greater frequency of favored movies. The adults, both human and turian, were secretly amused at the changing dynamic among the children. Andra was proving herself a born leader, with a tendency toward putting herself in the way to protect her friends.

Andra continued her shooting lessons diligently, regularly going out with several of her fellows under the supervision of various adults. She was widely considered to be the best shot in her year, as well as a few years above and below. Garrus, while trying to compete with her, grew more diligent in his studies, and would frequently tag along on her shooting sessions. He and several of the other older children would assist in these sessions as the adults looked on.

Several months later, Desolas was transferred. Antoria and Desolas discussed it, and agreed to move to the Citadel. Andra was understandably upset at the loss of her friends, but Antoria and Saren arranged to use their influence to permit her weekly calls to Palaven to keep up with their doings. She wasn’t the only human in her new classes, and spending time with kids of her own species was enough to provide a balm.

She joined the local shooting club, and was quickly placed in competition with children much older than she. Her most bitter rival was a turian a few years short of entering the service, named Nihlus. He had obviously been taught to mistrust humans, and was quite vocal in his displeasure at her appearance. She decided that the best way of quieting him was to quietly beat his high scores.

It seemed to aggravate him more, that she was a better shot without bragging about it. 

Desolas encouraged her to shrug it off. He would either learn, or not, but the Hierarchy promoted adaptable soldiers first, and Nihlus was only hurting his chances. 

She spent a few more years on the Citadel, forming a friend group of a number of races. She seemed willing to befriend anyone she met, with the sole exception of the asari.

When questioned about her dislike, she could only shrug. “They feel weird in my head.”

At fifteen, she followed turian tradition and enlisted, rapidly moving up in ranks. Desolas and Antoria moved back to Palaven, and Saren finally moved out, to a small apartment on the Citadel. He would frequently spend time with his brother, however, claiming that it kept him from subsisting entirely on take-out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm not dead, promise!
> 
> This is just meant as a "time passes" montage, and introduces some characters we'll see later (Why, yes, I do love the "childhood friend-turned-lover" trope)
> 
> I have a few edits I need to make on the next chapter, and then a few finished ones, and then the one I'm currently writing.
> 
> (I'm sorry I abandoned this since august! I was wooed into Overwatch! I wrote a complete Skyrim fic! But I'm back for a while, at least.)


	8. Chapter 8

**2175, Palaven**

“Father, I’m 18 next month.”

Desolas looked up from the datapad he was studying. _Spirits, she had grown into a stubborn woman._ “And…?”

Andra huffed out a breath. “You said, when I turned 18, if I did well in the military, you would let me sign on with the Alliance navy. That’s next month, and you haven’t made any preparations.”

“And you accuse me of this with what evidence?” he asked, putting the datapad to one side.

She ran her fingers through her reddish-brown hair. “I’ve asked Sehr Kryik, the control staff at the docks, and I went through the official posting listings. You’ve done nothing to get me to Earth.”

“Again, and…?” She let out a short scream and pounded up the stairs to her room.

Desolas hid a grin. He was planning on surprising her, and had no intention of ruining that for himself. 

Saren walked in from the back office. “You’re enjoying aggravating her, aren’t you?”

Desolas beamed. “It will do her good. Are the preparations made?”

Saren rolled his eyes as he grabbed a bottle of ale and walked outside. “Yes, dear brother. You know she won’t be happy with you.”

During the next several weeks, Andra pestered her parents, the turians she crewed with, and even the Primarch, for passage to Arcturus Station. Her superiors just smiled and went about their business, while her contemporaries shrugged helplessly. Finally, Desolas handed her a datapad.

“Here. Study this and draw up a report of your own conclusions,” Desolas ordered.

Intrigued, she opened the file. It was the testimony around the events that led to the destruction of Temple Palaven. She was interested to see that she had been given an uncensored copy and settled in to read it. The story had always fascinated her, and she was enjoying seeing the unaltered story. 

She studied the images from the suit recordings with interest. The changes made to the corpses were simultaneously fascinating and repelling to her, and she knew that their images would be burned into her mind for a long time. After tearing apart all the information, she couldn’t find any explanation beyond the realization that she didn’t have all the information.

She woke up at dawn on the morning of the seventh and dressed for her morning run. She paused at the top of the stairs when she smelled chava. Desolas didn’t drink it this early, and Antoria refused to be up before 0930 every morning. “Advantage of the promotion” she called it. Cautiously, Andra went downstairs. She froze when she saw the turian at the counter, then she screamed “Uncle!” She ran over and hugged him. Saren returned the embrace one-handed, the other still holding the mug of chava.

“Good morning, Lanura. I’ve got an early present for you.” Saren said as Desolas entered the kitchen.

“If it’s anything other than a varren pup or a ride to Arcturus Station, I will shoot you both.” She grabbed a glass of water and stood, hip cocked, staring at her father and uncle.

Saren grinned at his brother. “Hear that? I could have saved myself a great deal of time and effort and just brought back a varren pup. I wish I’d known sooner. Avoided some paperwork, too.”

Andra glared at him. “Not funny, uncle.” She raised her glass, then the rest of what he said struck her. “I got in?” she put the glass on the counter. “Really? I got in?” Desolas and Saren both grinned and nodded at her. “I got in! I got in! I got in! Yesyesyesyes!” she sang as she ran over and hugged them. “I need to go pack!” she realized, and ran back upstairs.

“Bring your dress uniform!” Desolas called after, chuckling

From her room in the back of the house, Antoria yelled something incoherent and put Desolas’s pillow over her head.

**Arcturus Station, two weeks later**

Andra entered the Alliance space station and glanced around. Saren had left her to go attend to “Spectre business”, something to do with his current case. One of the Marines saw her and approached warily. She stood at attention and held his gaze. “Let me save you some time. Andra Shepard, and I’m here to join the Alliance Navy.”

The Marine nodded. “George Johnson. You’re early. Local time is 1145. Meet will be through there.” He pointed at a passage leading into the station. “Leave your bag. We’ll get it where it needs to go.”

She nodded and walked off, deciding to explore the station. She gathered more than a few wary looks, but chose to disregard them. She knew she stood out, choosing to wear turian-style clothing of a tunic over leggings, in lieu of the human fasions, but the human styles made her subtly uncomfortable.

At 1459, Andra walked down the passage indicated, looking for the staff resources office. Finding it, she knocked.

A voice from within called “Enter.”

Andra walked in, saluting the woman at the desk in the turian style. “High Commander Andra Shepard, as ordered.”

The woman examined her disdainfully, sniffed, and returned the salute. Andra stood at attention. The woman consulted her computer and sighed. “As you have been trained, presumably, by our allies, you will first be sent to Alberta to attend Officer Candidacy School. If you should pass,” the woman glanced at Andra “unlikely, you will be deployed on a trial tour. If your CO should be satisfied with your performance, you will be issued current orders as to stationing.” The woman sniffed and consulted her computer again. “As the turians handle things differently, you will carry the rank of Ensign until you can prove yourself in the Alliance.” she arched an eyebrow at Andra, seeming to dare her to object.

Andra forced the urge to punch the woman down and answered. “Ma’am. Yes, Ma’am.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Very well. You will depart on board the Troy at 0500 hours, Arcturus time. While you are here, until you leave for OCS in the morning, you are considered an officer of the turian navy, and will still bear the rank that they have issued you. We have made access to guest quarters available to you on Deck 12. You are dismissed.”

Andra saluted, got a half wave/ half salute in return, preformed an about face and left the room, considering. It was currently 1515 by Arcturus time and she had no idea how to kill the time before her departure. She looked around the docks, trying to see either Saren or his rumored protege, but couldn’t see either. She was about to head for the gym when her omni-tool pinged a message alert.

“High Commander Andra Shepard,

Welcome to Arcturus Station. 

Admiral Hackett requests the pleasure of your company for dinner.

Dinner will be held at the Officer’s Club, on Deck 5, at 6:30 in the evening of August the Twenty-First, in the year Twenty-One Seventy-Five.

Formal attire is required.”

_Well. Right on time. Bit stiff, though. Heading to the elevator, she punched the button for Deck 12._

Upon finding her room, and her bag inside, she hunted up the gym. Spending some time hitting the heavy bag allowed her to work off a bit of her anger at the bureaucrat. Then she returned to her room for a quick shower. Once her hair was dry, she tied it back into a tail and donned her uniform. The turians had had an interesting time with the human uniforms. Several other human orphans had been adopted by turians in the time following first contact, but Andra was the oldest by a few years. Several had already gone through turian boot camp, and only Andra had chosen to leave the turian navy for the human one. Seven of the humans currently in the turian military force had expressed desire in following Andra’s footsteps, but she would be the first. Goody. I get to set precedent.

Checking to ensure that there were no wrinkles or flaws in the uniform, she checked the time. 1700. She sat at the desk and used the comm unit to send a message home.

“Father and Mother.

I am scheduled to leave for Earth at 0500. There seems to be a mix of reactions to me. Some people seem pleased, while others would like to see me fail. I am an Ensign again, joy. This isn’t a slap to the turians, just the humans wanting to asses my abilities on their metrics. You know humans don’t do things the same way, and I don’t think they know what a demotion means in the Hierarchy. I know my skills, and I don’t take this demotion as a mark against anyone, except maybe the bureaucrats.

Love to you both,

Andra”

At 1815, she double-checked her appearance and set out to find the Officer’s Club.

Turns out, it wasn’t that hard. The O club took up all of deck 5. She entered and looked around. A waiter approached her. “Ma’am. Did you have a reservation?”

She shook her head. “No. I was invited by Admiral Hackett.”

“Ah, yes. This way, Commander.” And he walked off, leading Andra into the club.

He approached a table where a pair of turians were sat with two humans. As she rounded the table to te vacant chair, she recognized Saren and Nihlus. 

The admiral nodded to her. “Commander. May I introduce Captain David Anderson” the younger man inclined his head “and Spectre candidate Nihlus Kryik.” The other turian nodded, green eyes sparkling against the black and white of his colony markings. “Please, sit.” Andra sat between her uncle and Captain Anderson.

_Wait. Is this the one who was turned down for Spectre status… Oh boy. This’ll be a fun evening._

Admiral Hackett looked between Saren and Captain Anderson, and spoke to Andra. “I’m curious, Commander. Your record indicates you’ve had dealings with pirates. It would seem to me that the turian military would provide a better platform to deal with them. Why make the transfer?”

She looked up. “Well, while the turian military does have the history of dealing with them, humans are starting to as well, and I thought it would be useful to help from the beginning.” She felt Saren leaning his spur into her calf, warning her.

Hackett nodded at her, and spoke to Saren about the particulars of his mission. Andra sighed. She had been permitted to speak very freely in the turian military, both as a result of who raised her and because she usually managed to pull a successful run from a seemingly hopeless situation. She did not have that luxury with the humans. She would need to remember that.

The dinner ended with Anderson and Saren managing to avoid acknowledging each other’s existence, and Hackett wishing her well in her training. Nihlus had been mooning over her the whole evening, which was annoying. She needed to focus on her training.

She went to bed. 4:00 would be here very early, and she wasn’t used to the 24-hour cycle the humans used.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're moving on to the human training! Shep is now 18, and served 3 years in the turian military. The rank I gave her, High Commander, is equivalent to Captain in the human service. If I need to explain anything, please ask! I'm an idiot sometimes, and forget that none of you live in my head, and don't know everything I do.
> 
> I'm keeping some of what happened in the novel Revelation. If you've read it, remove all the parts where Saren is evil to be evil, and bump up the awkward romance between Anderson and Sanders. If you haven't, it's the best of the tie-in novels (imho), if you ignore the parts that make Saren evil for the sake of being evil. And the only part I'm keeping is Qian and Anderson choosing to save his love interest rather than stick to the mission.
> 
> You can come bug me on tumblr at p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com (because I can't get it to link, you'll have to copy/paste. Sorry.). I have links to other things that I can't promote on this site, so you should go check them out, please.


	9. Chapter 9

Extranet message:  
To: General Desolas Arterius  
From: Ensign Andra Shepard  
Date: 25 August, 2175  
Subject: Settling in

Father,

I have arrived at OCS and started the classes. So far, it’s things I was doing on the Solymus, so that part is fairly easy. My bunkmate, Ensign Kara Gardiner, has decided that she is going to give me a “crash course” in human popular culture and idioms. Apparently, this means she is going to make me watch every vid and show the humans made in their early days of spaceflight about spaceflight and aliens and so on.

I don’t have the heart to tell her I’ve already seen most of them.

Love to you and mother,  
Andra  
——————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: Hierarch Antoria Arterius  
From: Lieutenant Andra Shepard  
Date: 27 August, 2175  
Subject: Really?

Mother

Yes, there are males in my classes. No, I’m not going to bed one. Go bother Saren.

A  
————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: Spectre Saren Arterius  
From: Ensign Andra Shepard  
Date: 17 September, 2175  
Subject: I’m busy

Uncle

Classes are going well, despite that approximately half of my fellow students are trying to get me expelled or killed. I’m adjusting to the culture shift fairly well, although these 24-hour days are cramped. Why can’t humans use a 28-hour day, like a sane species?

Please stop complaining about Nihlus to me. If he’s that bad, revoke his status. If you are trying to set us up, please don’t. I will find my own mate, thank you very much.

If this is retaliation for setting Mother on you, please remember, I learned to fight dirty from you.

Much love,

A  
—————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: General Desolas Arterius  
CC: Spectre Saren Arterius, Heirarch Antoria Arterius  
From: Ensign Andra Shepard  
Date: 25 December, 2175  
Subject: Celebrations!

Family

It is apparently a major holiday today. Everyone is exchanging gifts and wishing everyone well. There’s a snowball fight on the grounds. I am still confined to quarters and cannot participate. I will not apologize for the fight, nor will I apologize for throwing the first punch. Giovanni Cobb deserved the beating I gave him and more. He was deliberately sabotaging practice rifles to shoot live ammunition. They can do whatever they want to me, but that would have endangered everyone on the field.

And, Mother, my bed is still virtuously empty. I don’t need a relationship complicating things right now.

All my love

A  
——————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: General Desolas Arterius  
CC: Spectre Saren Arterius, Hierarch Antoria Arterius  
From: Ensign Andra Shepard  
Date: 1 March, 2176  
Subject: Still busy!  
Dear family,

I’m in training, I can’t answer every message every time! 

I live, obviously. I’ve passed the official and unofficial training. Now comes the hard part. The Alliance seems fairly evenly split about approving of me, and wanting me to fail. I’m trying to ignore the second half, but some days it seems like it would be easier to shoot them. (No, father, I won’t)(and I won’t ask uncle to do it for me)(Killjoys)

I’m to be stationed on board the Marathon for my adjustment tour. We’ll be patrolling in the Skyllian Verge. Oh, joy. More pirates.

Love to everyone,  
A  
——————————————————————————————————————————————————  
Alliance News Network Report:

A Hero is Forged  
15 May, 2176

Elysium: Lieutenant Andra Shepard will be awarded the Star of Terra tomorrow for her actions is saving the colony of Elysium. 

Lieutenant Shepard was enjoying shore leave on the colony when it was attacked by pirates. Rallying the colonists to fight, Lieutenant Shepard showed a strong leadership potential.

Lieutenant Shepard managed to single-handedly hold off one front of the blitz for two hours, coordinating defenses with other Marines on leave.

The awards ceremony will be held tomorrow at Arcturus Station.  
——————————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: Admiral Steven Hackett  
From: Lieutenant Andra Shepard  
Date: 15 May, 2176  
Subject: It’s an honor, truly

Sir,

I am honored that you wish to award the Star of Terra to me, however I feel that I did not do anything worthy of that honor. Asking people to defend their homes does not deserve a medal. I only did what any good soldier would have done.

Lieutenant Andra Shepard  
———————————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: Spectre Saren Arterius  
From: Lieutenant Andra Shepard  
Date: 16 May, 2176  
Subject: Kill you!

Uncle

I will shoot you the next time I see you. I saw you laughing at me during the whole ceremony! I don’t even deserve it! I did my job, that’s it. No need for everyone to make a fuss. It makes me itchy. 

Oh! Mother said you finally got booted out of Aria’s bed. Good. You’re a Spectre. You’re supposed to be upholding the law, right? Although, I do love how you managed to break Omega’s one rule. Repeatedly.

Love you!

A  
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: Hierarch Antoria Arterius  
From: Lieutenant Andra Shepard  
Date: 18 May, 2176  
Subject: This is just getting old

Mother

Yes, there were many attractive men at the ceremony. No, I did not bed any of them. I want more than a fling, alright? I want a true partnership, like you and Father.

A  
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————   
Extranet message:  
To: General Desolas Arterius  
From: Lieutenant Andra Shepard  
Date: 5 June, 2176  
Subject: Hi!

Father

You’re looking well. I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk while the Marathon and the Solymus were docked together. I’ve kinda missed seeing turians everywhere.

Love to you and Mother

A  
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: Major Kyle  
From: Lieutenant Commander Andra Shepard  
Date: 10 January, 2177  
Subject: Torfan

Major.

I will absolutely help you out. I want these pirates gone just as much as anyone. I will speak to my captain for a transfer.

Lieutenant Commander Shepard  
——————————————————————————————————————————————

Alliance News Network Report:

A Hero Rises  
20 January, 2177

Torfan: A strike team under the command of Major Kyle routed the last of the pirates who attacked the colony Elysium last year. However, an anonymous source has informed the ANN that Lieutenant Commander Shepard was, in fact, the person responsible for the success of the mission. 

“Not that I want to say anything bad about Major Kyle, you understand, but the Major was gonna have us just charge on in. The Lieutenant Commander, she told us to hold, and set up some kill zones on the outside. The Major didn’t like it, but when that first group came out, you bet your ass he changed his mind. We’d’ve all died if the Commander wasn’t there, that’s for damn sure,” a source, who wished to remain anonymous, reported.

Lieutenant Commander Shepard was previously awarded the Star of Terra for her defense of Elysium.  
———————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message  
To: Hierarch Antoria Arterius  
From: Lieutenant Commander Andra Shepard  
Date: 22 January, 2177  
Subject: And you are surprised, why?

Mother,

Of course I’m going to finish every fight I’m in. And of course I’m going to do everything I can to keep my men alive. That’s how you raised me, that’s how Father raised me, what did you think was going to happen?

Yes, I know it was Major Kyle’s mission. He froze once we came down to it. I hope he’s going to get help. No, I’m not going to sleep with him to console him.

Go bug Saren, already. Rumor has it he found a gardener.

I’m being assigned to a security detail, help out some colonists. Hopefully, it will be dull work.

A  
——————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: General Desolas Arterius  
From: Lieutenant Commander Andra Shepard  
Date: 12 July, 2177  
Subject: I owe you and uncle lots of drinks

Father

Yes, my transfer to the security detail was a slap. I did deserve it, though. Major Kyle contacted me as a consultant, and I took over his op. The Major has friends in higher places than I do. No, I’m not going to use you or Mother to improve my standing here.

So. I’m currently in the medical wing on Akuze. I’m fine, just caught some thresher maw venom to the side. Yeah. Threshers. There was a nest of the damn things less than a mile from the main encampment. Surprised no one pissed them off earlier. Anyway, they had us go out on a practice run when we drove the mako right over the nest. Had fun taking it out. The other two, not so much.

The mako was heavily damaged, and a couple of my guys got pretty dinged up. I think Toombs is worst hurt with a broken arm, some cracked ribs, and some like injuries. One of the threshers fell on him. He claims that someone sent them, but it looked like a standard thresher nest to me.

I’m getting transferred to the Agincourt, under Captain David Anderson. I’m going to be stuck here for a while, though. Can you send me that file about Temple Palaven? I’m bored enough that it seems interesting again.

Love to everyone.

A  
——————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To:Spectre Saren Arterius  
From: Lieutenant Commander Andra Shepard  
Date: 30 August, 2177  
Subject: You’re an ass

Uncle,

Captain Anderson is an amazing leader and a great soldier. Why in oblivion did you boot him out of the Spectre training?

Actually, I think I know. He’s a lot like you, in some ways.

Stop glaring at your screen, you look silly.

Kiss your gardener for me

A  
—————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: Hierarch Antoria Arterius  
From: Lieutenant Commander Andra Shepard  
Date: 15 September, 2177  
Subject: MOTHER!!!

Mother!

He is my commanding officer! NO!

A  
——————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: Spectre Saren Arterius  
From: Lieutenant Commander Andra Shepard  
Date: 24 October, 2177  
Subject: Congrats, you’re a messenger

Uncle

I’m sending you Father’s promotion present. Please make sure he gets it.

Two hierarchs in the family, and isn’t father pissed? He hates politics.

Anyway, give mother and father my love, I’m starting N level training tomorrow, so I’ll miss the ceremony. 

What’s your gardener’s name?

A  
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: Hierarch Antoria Arterius  
From: Commander Andra Shepard  
Date: 30 December, 2177  
Subject: how much free time do you think I have?

Mother.

I am knee deep in N7 training.

I AM NOT SLEEPING WITH ANYONE!

A  
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: Spectre Saren Arterius  
From: Commander Andra Shepard  
Date: 5 January, 2178  
Subject: Free at last, free at last

Uncle

So, you’re finally rid of your trainee? Does this mean you’ll stop messaging me every time he does something stupid? Please? Or did you set him loose years ago, and kept up the stories?

Also, seriously, what’s up with the gardener?

A  
———————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: Hierarch Antoria Arterius  
From: Commander Andra Shepard  
Date: 21 August, 2178  
Subject: You’re not my real mom!

Mother.

I will run away and adopt many baby pyjaks and varren pups if you don’t stop asking about the men in my life.

I do love you, even when I want to shoot you  
A  
———————————————————————————————————————————————

Extranet message:  
To: Hierarch Desolas Arterius  
From: Lieutenant Commander Andra Shepard  
Date: 5 April, 2179  
Subject: [no subject]

I heard. I’m coming home.   
———————————————————————————————————————————————

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Think of this one as "Time passes" (because if I covered Shep's whole life, we'd be here forever).
> 
> I made some edits from the last time this was up, and will be making some changes to the next chapter as well.
> 
> Come bug me on Tumblr! p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com
> 
> Comments are love, share this with your friends, all that jazz.


	10. Chapter 10

**Palaven, 2180**

It was a bright, sunny day, with not a cloud to be seen. It was wrong. Funerals were supposed to be rainy, grey days. The funebris was crowded with mourners. The crowd was nearly silent, only the faint rustling when someone shifted. The pyres were large and blazing. Andra stood next to her father and watched the flames consumed the bodies. She hooked her arm around his waist, hoping to give and receive comfort. He put his arm around her shoulders, holding her tight. She refused to cry. Her tears were for private, with her family, not for public display.

Saren, not being needed by the Council for the time being, had been busying himself by working security details at the consulate. Several days before, a human claiming to be “Cerberus” had run into the consulate, decried all turians as evil, and opened fire. The human had been taken down swiftly, but the damage was already done. 

The eulogies were said and the ashes collected as the sun lowered over the horizon.

Many hierarchs and their aides were killed, many more wounded, but the worst of the tragedy was the class that had been visiting for a school trip. The children had been visiting the hierarchs to learn how Palaven’s governance worked. Saren had protected as many of the children as he could with his body, but incendiary rounds are not forgiving of flesh and blood.

Desolas and Andra returned to their home, silently accepting and returning the condolences with shared grief.

Antoria had been discussing a slight change in the trade agreement with the asari when the shooter had entered. She had gone to greet the man when he shot her in the gut. Wounded, Antoria had triggered the alarm. Her actions had saved numerous lives.

Desolas sat in the family room and stared at his hands. Andra went into the kitchen and looked around, lost. She knew she should eat, but she walked into the family room and sat by Desolas. He pulled her to his side, resting his chin on her head. They sat like that for hours, neither one breaking the silence. Finally Desolas rose and headed back to his room in the back of the house. Andra went to her old room upstairs. Nothing had changed. She lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling. She vowed to destroy Cerberus and all it stood for, but more information would be needed.

She got up and moved to her computer. Accessing the extranet, she looked into Cerberus. She knew that Cerberus would be able to counter any hacking effort she made, and so didn’t bother to try. She gathered all the information that was available on the ‘net, and then sent out messages to those in the Alliance military she knew would give her some of the answers she sought. She sent a message to Nihlus, asking him to use his contacts as a Spectre to gather more information. Any and all information she could get would be weapons in her arsenal in this vendetta.

Considering, she also sent a message to Garrus. She had heard that he was in CSEC now, and he might be able to hear something she couldn’t. Then she sent a message to Primarch Pavius and Admiral Hackett, informing them of her current quest and asking for any assistance they could lend. She considered seeking out the Shadow Broker, but she could not afford his services, and did not think it would be wise to anger two major players at this point.

Realizing that there was nothing left to be done, she lay down and forced herself to sleep.

The next morning, Andra got up and checked for replies to her queries. Her military contacts promised to send her what they could find. Nihlus and Garrus, apparently, both had files on Cerberus already, and both sent them in full, with promises to keep her appraised as they acquired more. She heard nothing official from the Primarch or the Admiral, but she hadn’t expected any. There were some anonymous files containing information, and that was fine.

She spent most of the morning compiling and cross-referencing the information she had. Once she had something solid, she sought out her father. He was on the porch, looking out at the garden.

“Father? I have some information on Cerberus. Not enough to do anything about them yet, but I will.”

He looked up at her and sighed. “I should have been there.”

Andra rocked back on her heels and glared at him. “The past can’t be changed. All we can do is get up and move on. And destroy Cerberus in the process.”

Desolas gave a half grin at that. “What do you have?”

She sent a copy to his omni-tool and brought him up to speed on the contacts she was using. He reviewed her information and nodded. “Good. You might be able to start here, but the Illusive Man will change things around once you start.”

“I know. I don’t plan on making a move until I can take out the Illusive Man first.”

He nodded again, and checked the message he just received. “Come on. We’re wanted.”

They walked, discussing strategies and plans and contingencies for dealing with Cerberus until they reached a large, square building. They entered and showed the turian at the desk their credentials, and were instructed to go to room 1817. They proceeded to the elevator and Desolas hit the button for the 18th floor. 

As Andra looked at the rows of numbers, she asked her father “Did you know that humans don’t label the thirteenth floor? They call it the fourteenth.”

“Why?”

“They used to believe that thirteen was an unlucky number. They mostly don’t anymore, but they still skip floor thirteen.”

Desolas shrugged, and they exited the elevator. Heading down the hall to room 1817, they entered.

“Took you long enough.” said an annoyed voice.

Andra forced down a smile as the other turian in the room spoke. “Hush. They both had business to attend to. I’m sure they came as soon as they could.”

Desolas walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. Carefully, he embraced Antoria. She held him back, murmuring in his aural canal. Andra smiled fondly, and turned to the occupant of the other bed.

“Your protege is useful. He’s getting me information on Cerberus.”

Saren snorted. “You’re not taking on Cerberus on your own.”

Andra considered. “No. But I will have enough information to be useful to the team that does.” Saren grunted. Andra poked an unbandaged part of his torso as he slapped at her weakly with his new cybernetic arm. “Finally got around to modifying medigel for turians? Good.”

Saren glared at her, fingers twitching. “The side affects aren’t worth it.”

“But now, you’ll be up and able to shoot things so much faster! But yeah, the nausea and dizziness is almost worse than being shot.”

Andra checked her omni-tool as it pinged. “Speaking of, I have to go get shot at. I need to be at the docks in fifteen. Do your physio, uncle, and try not to traumatize your nurses.” She hugged everyone farewell and got promises to send more information her way and left for the docks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a resolution to the cliffhanger.
> 
> Check me out at p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com, because I have links I can't post here!
> 
> So, meta talk!
> 
> In the game, Saren is all cyborg-y when we first meet him, except he was actually only supposed to look like that at the end, after Virmire, but the devs forgot (considering they also forgot about Thane, I'm not surprised). Anyway, one of Saren's "enhancements" in the game is his left arm is replaced by a geth arm. 
> 
> This piece of trivia might become relevant in later chapters. ;)
> 
> Comments are love!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

**2183, Eden Prime**

“Alright, this one’s nice and simple. Eden Prime dug up a Prothean beacon. The powers that be want to study in on site for a bit, apparently they think it’s tied to something bigger. Council’s sending a Spectre to keep an eye on things, and the Alliance is sending us to keep an eye on them. Any questions?”

Andra looked around at the small squad, making sure everyone was on the same page.

“Good. Now, this is supposed to be routine. We all know how that works out.” She waited for the chuckles to die out before continuing. “Our main priority is keeping the civilians safe. Second is keeping peace between all the different races that’ll be in on this project. Any problems, come to me.”

The shuttle came in for a landing at a small spaceport, and Andra grabbed her gear and hopped out. She left Alenko in charge of gathering everyone as she went in search of the barracks. She found the port master in his office, going over some invoices.

“Alliance squad, checking in. Where do you want us?”

He looked up. “Right. Barracks are closer to the site. Get your men and take the tram. You lot’ll be bunking with the Spectre. Turian. There’s marines on site, you can choose to take over or not. They’re mostly locals, used to doing security, but not for anything this big.”

She nodded and took his directions, waving her squad over. Once they were settled on the tram, she addressed them again.

“We’ll be bunking with a turian, the Spectre. Any of you worked with a turian before?” The squad shook their heads. “Right. On duty, they’re duty first, everything else is second. Off duty, they have permission to do whatever. Don’t judge them until you’ve spoken when they’re off duty.”

“Weren’t you raised by a turian, ma’am?” one of the newer ones, Barretts, asked.

“Yes, and served three years in the Hierarchy military. Officially, I transferred out, unofficially, I’m still a High Commander. It’s equivalent to a captain’s rank.”

“So why are you a commander now?” Alenko wondered.

“Politics. Turians believe in promoting people based on skill, humans demand a certain amount of time at each rank first. It shouldn’t be an issue, though. Spectres outrank me either way. Be respectful, and don’t try to piss them off.”

They reached the docks and filed out, following her to their barracks. Once inside, they claimed beds away from the two occupied ones and began stowing their gear as Andra dropped her duffle and made her way to the dig site. She made note of the monitoring equipment and scientists as she walked. Mostly salarian, a few turians, and surprisingly, a quarian. She rounded the corner to approach the shack that was acting as security headquarters.

And stopped dead.

_Nihlus._

He was standing by the shack, talking to one of the local marines. Her heart gave a lurch, and she ruthlessly crushed the rise of hope. _He made it abundantly clear that you were only a one-night-stand. You will not pant at his heels like a bitch in heat!_

Shepard forced herself to breathe. _That was nothing. It never happened. You can avoid him outside of the mission._

Nihlus turned, as if he had heard her thoughts. His bright emerald eyes were striking against the black-and-white of his colony markings. Almost immediately, Shepard remembered how they had looked that night, burning with passion.

And how emotionless they had looked when he kicked her out of his rooms the following morning.

 _Dammit, Andra, you will not give that bastard the pleasure of seeing you flinch. You are an Arterius, dammit. You will show him nothing._ She squared her shoulders and approached him.

She walked up to Nihlus as the marine left and saluted, turian-style. “I take it you’re the Spectre I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on?”

“Commander Shepard” he almost seemed to jump when he saw her. He returned the salute and faced the teeming crowd again.

She stood beside him, watching the scientists work. “Any issues so far?”

He shrugged. “One of the scientists got hit by something before I got here. Superior says he’s paranoid, ranting about ‘darkness’, ‘the end’, and that no one can stop it. Team lead hired the krogan there as a bodyguard, but he says it won’t change anything.”

She watched the krogan, nodding his way when he glared at her. She hummed for a bit, considering. “So, are you jittery because I’m here, or because this is going well?”

Nihlus glared over his shoulder, then sighed. “They haven’t figured out what it does, and that one scientist is… I don’t know. But I don’t like it.”

She nodded. “How’s the local marine squad?”

His subvocals thrummed in amusement. “Most of them resent having a turian here. Some just resent that I’m a Spectre. Are you supposed to take charge of them, too?”

“Only if I need to. I’ll go coordinate with them, get my own impression.”

He watched her go, then called, “There was one other thing, Commander.”

She turned. He took the few steps until he was standing before her. She wrinkled her nose a bit when she had to look up at him.

“I’ve put your name in for consideration for the Spectres. I’m supposed to take this as an opportunity to evaluate you.”

Andra crossed her arms and glared at him. “And you couldn’t have done this ‘evaluation’ during that undercover operation last year, why?”

Nihlus looked like he was going to bolt for the hills, when there was a patter of gunfire in the distance. They turned in unison, pistols drawn as they scanned for the source.

“Don’t see anything. Scans,” she checked her omni-tool, “showing nothing.”

“That wasn’t nothing,” he growled as he marched off toward the gunfire.

 _Idiot’s going to get himself killed._ She activated the comm. “Alenko, get everyone suited up. We have shots fired and unknown hostiles. Get-”

She cut off as a deep booming noise, almost a snarl, rent the air. She looked up to see a massive ship slowly coming to a landing.

“Have Barrett start evacuating the civilians. Nihlus and I will be on 5. Get a squad and move the beacon.”

She switched over to 5, contacting Nihlus. “Nihlus. Whatever is going on, it’s big. I can keep up with you. I know turian military protocol. Alenko and my squad can be a backup team, but you need someone out there watching your six. Will you take my help, or is that stick too firmly embedded up your cloaca?”

There was a pointed silence. “Fine. Catch up.”

She grinned a bit, then ran to catch up. There was a brief contact with Alenko, he’d met up with the local marine unit and they were evacuating the science team and the beacon. Andra caught up with Nihlus and they moved on, approaching one of the satellite farming communities. They came over a small ridge and saw the farm. There were three bodies hanging from spikes off to one side. Andra paused and considered. Her father had told her of corpses changing in Temple Palaven, and she had seen his mission recording. These looked… not identical, but definitely similar. 

She turned to Nihlus. “See those bodies on the spikes? Keep an eye on them.” So saying, she slid down the ridge, ignoring Nihlus’ look of confusion. There were heat signatures in one of the buildings, and she wanted to verify friend or foe. As she approached the door, there was a shriek of metal. Andra looked over to see the spikes collapse into their bases and the corpses get up. She heard Nihlus swear as she opened fire. A grenade flew by her head and she dove for cover. Trading out her pistol for her assault rifle, she leaned out of cover and finished off the last corpse.

Nihlus approached her, pistol at low ready. “What were those things?” he demanded. 

Andra shook her head. “I don’t know. They look like something Father told me about.”

Nihlus opened his mouth, closed it, then said “Give me a briefing after this. I hate being out of the loop.”

Andra nodded and moved back to the locked door. Overriding the lock, she saw two humans inside. After making sure they were safe, she caught up with Nihlus. She listened to Alenko, then nodded.

“They got the beacon to the spaceport.” They turned when they heard more fire behind them, and Alenko called over the comms that hostiles had hit the dig site. Andra took point again, pushing the words of Manuel to the back of her mind. Some of what he said was similar to testimony from those humans who were involved in the events at Temple Palaven 26 years before. She made a note to ask her father for transcripts.

She crested another hill and saw the ship ahead, and traded her assault rifle for her sniper rifle to get a better look. She studied it as it took off, and scanned the area ahead. There were more corpses on poles and some figures ahead. Studying them, she realized they weren’t organic. She signaled to Nihlus, and had him see for himself.

“Geth? What are they doing outside of the Veil?” Nihlus asked as he handed back her rifle and readied his own.

Andra shouldered her rifle and shrugged. Scanning the loading platform, she noticed several explosive cannisters _and a human ordering the geth around… hmmmmmm._ Nihlus signaled, and he and Andra opened fire on the cannisters, destroying several geth. The human ran off while the remaining geth charged their position. Andra carefully picked them off while Nihlus switched back to his pistol and moved closer.

There was a scream of metal and the impaled corpses joined the geth. Andra took out one that was approaching Nihlus’ position, while Nihlus took out another corpse and three geth in rapid succession. Over the comm, she heard Alenko announce friendlies incoming.

She turned and saw Alenko, and two marines from the local unit. One was limping, and sported an omni-gel patch on his armor. The other was in phoenix armor, warily watching their backs. “How you doing, sildier?” she asked once they were closer.

He winced. “Corporal Jenkins, Commander. Been better, Ma’am. We got hit by some of the flying ones. Went right through my shields. Luckily, the LT managed to throw up a barrier, and got me some medi-gel.”

Andra glanced at Alenko “He should be fine, but a medic should have a look at him. We also picked up Gunnery Chief Williams, of the 212.”

The female Marine saluted “Ma’am.”

Andra returned the salute. Before the Marine could say anything more, Nihlus approached. Andra noticed a flash of distaste on William’s face as he appeared. _Now, was that because he’s a Spectre, or because he’s turian?_ Deciding to keep an eye on her, Andra ordered “Move out!”

Andra had Alenko take point. She went behind him with Williams flanking Jenkins and Nihlus on drag. As they approached the spaceport, Andra caught movement among some crates. Alenko and Williams immediately had their weapons trained on the pile.

“Wait, wait! Don’t shoot! I’m human!” The man, a dockworker by his clothes, came out slowly, hands raised. Andra questioned him briefly, holding Williams back from doing the man some real harm. _Really need to keep an eye on her…._ The man told them that the human with the geth was a new arrival to the colony, supposedly an expert on Prothean ruins. “Said his name was Qian, yeah. Dr. Shu Qian.”

After directing the man back to the camp with the other survivors, they headed to the tram to the other space station. On the way, the dealt with a handful more geth, most falling to Andra’s sniper rifle, though Alenko made a decent showing with his biotics. As they traveled, Andra did a quick check of Jenkins’s leg. It was doing fine, but she seconded having a medic look him over. There was an experimental Alliance ship in range, and her captain agreed to transport the beacon and wounded to the Citadel. 

At the second spaceport, Nihlus took out the sole geth on the landing platform. 

Andra looked around. “Ah, crap. They rigged the place to blow”. She signaled the others to cover her as she disarmed the bomb, then scanned the area for more. “Three more. Watch my back,” she called as she raced up the ramp. She took out one geth between her and the second bomb and disarmed it, hearing Nihlus and Alenko clearing the third. Andra checked again, and called to Nihlus. “It’s closer to you, at your ten.”

She took out three more geth, and verified that all bombs were disconnected. Sounding the all clear, she followed Alenko toward the docks. _And more zombies. This day just gets better and better._ Once the shooting was done, she checked the beacon. Nihlus helped Jenkins sit out of the way and administered a second dose of medi-gel while Alenko walked over to the beacon. It had been activated, somehow, and a beam of light was spearing the air above it. Andra arranged for the pickup, and turned as Williams approached her.

She shoved the Marine out of her way as she saw Alenko being dragged to the beacon. Tackling him clear, she felt the forces of the beacon grab her and lift her up. She hung, muscles rigid, as images and feelings poured into her mind. She saw blood, death, felt terror and despair. She saw synthetics mutilating organic flesh. And over it all, she saw a darkness that she knew was approaching. There was a final flash, the image of a planet and the knowledge that the answers she sought were there.

Then the beacon released her, and she fell heavily to the deck. She heard Nihlus call her name, and everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, decided to change up Eden Prime a bit. After this, I start using the game as a template (but I still do make some changes).
> 
> Also, the Return of The Awkward One-Night Stand!
> 
> Comments are love, visit me at p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com, because I can't link my patreon on AO3.


	12. Chapter 12

Waking up, Andra saw bright lights above her. She heard a voice saying “Dr. Chakwas, I think she’s waking up.” Nihlus didn’t sound concerned, but he tended toward the emotionless while he was working. She remembered that from her stint undercover for the Spectres.

She sat up slowly, grabbing her head as pain sliced through her temples. “And how are you feeling?” the medic, Chakwas asked kindly.

Andra groaned and forced her eyes open. “Like the morning after shore leave.” She heard Nihlus chuff behind her and asked “How long was I out?”

“About fifteen hours. Alenko and Nihlus brought you aboard.” Andra looked up and Chakwas chuckled. “Jenkins has been treated and released.”

Andra sighed, and turned to Nihlus. “What happened with the beacon?”

Nihlus looked at her coolly. “It exploded after you fell.”

“This is the Normandy?” the doctor nodded. “I take it I’ve been reassigned?”

Dr. Chakwas checked her omni-tool. “For now, you, Alenko, Williams, and Jenkins are to report to the human ambassador on the Citadel. They’ll decide what to do with you later. Your squad has been issued a transfer, most staying on Eden Prime.”

Andra rubbed her forehead again and looked up at her. “Put in your files that I had dreams. Weird ones.”

Dr. Chakwas nodded and looked up as the door opened. “Oh, Captain Anderson.”

“How’s she holding up?” he asked as he approached them.

“Fairly well, I’d say. She’s ready to go.”

Anderson nodded at her and she retired to her office. Andra looked over at Nihlus before the captain could speak. “I’d need to contact my father for some of this, but those things? They were on Palaven 26 years ago. I don’t think the technology was geth, but I never got a good look. The name Qian seems familiar. I think he was on Palaven at the same time, but if he was, it doesn't explain what he’s doing here. I’ll see if I can get the mission reports and testimonies.” Turning to Anderson, she continued, “The beacon gave me… I guess I could call it a vision. It showed synthetics attacking, war, death. I want a transcript from my suit, if there is one. I spoke to a scientist, Manuel, at the camp. He sounded crazy at the time, but a lot of what he said jibes with what the beacon showed me.”

Anderson scowled. “The Council needs to be informed. They won’t be happy the beacon was destroyed.”

Andra barked a laugh, “What are we going to tell them, that I had a bad dream? No,” she continued, shaking her head. “I’ll stand by my actions, and if I can get everything organized before I have to speak with them, I might get their support.”

Nihlus chuffed again, “Better start, then. We should be at the Citadel soon.”

“Great.” She tossed a salute as Nihlus left the room, then turned to Anderson.

“So, this is that new fancy ship they wanted me to XO, isn’t it?” she asked with a small grin.

Anderson returned the grin, leading the way out of the medbay. “Until the Spectres pulled you planetside, anyway.”

He showed her around the ship, as they discussed the project behind it. “First human/turian ship out there. Experimental engine and stealth drive. She’s quick, agile. Hope to see more like her soon.”

Andra felt herself falling in love as she studied the schematics. “She’s amazing, Sir.”

“Joker thinks so, too. He locked the original test pilot in a closet and stole her on the trial run.” He studied the pilot in question from where they stood in the CIC. “Managed to evade three turian fighters and still complete the training course, in half of the projected time.”

She shrugged. “He’s an ass, and a pervert, but he’s the best damn pilot I’ve worked with, I’ll give him that.”

She made her excuses and borrowed the comm room, using the codes issued by the turian navy to send an urgent message to Hierarch Desolas Arterius and Hierarch Antoria Arterius asking for everything they had on the incident in Temple Palaven. She also sent one to Spectre Saren Arterius, asking for the same info, as well as everything he had on Qian. She included a postscript asking him to see her on the Citadel, if he was available.

It would take a day to receive the responses from her parents, maybe longer for Saren if he was on a mission. She relaxed a bit when her omni-tool pinged a message. Saren had replied, and would meet her at Flux with his info on Qian. As she reached the bridge, her omni-tool pinged again. She smiled as she read the reply. Apparently her mother was at the Citadel, and wanted to meet her at the turian embassy.

While Williams and Alenko _Oohed_ and _Ahhhed_ over the Citadel and the Destiny Ascension, Andra quickly sent a reply to her mother and uncle, arranging to meet both at the turian embassy. She turned and saw Anderson approaching.

“Sir. I have sources that will give me more information on the things from Eden Prime, and on Dr. Qian. I’m to meet them in the turian embassy once we dock.”

“Good. I’ll send over my information on Qian as well, and I’ll deal with Udina. We need this intel, Commander.”

Once the Normandy was docked, Andra headed out for the turian embassy, while Nihlus headed off for the Spectre offices and Anderson went to the human embassy. The rest of the crew was taking advantage of the brief shore leave and exploring the Citadel.

Saren was waiting in front of the embassy when Andra walked up. “Heard you had some trouble.”

“The things from Temple Palaven showed up, there were geth everywhere, and a Prothean device uploaded corrupted data into my brain. You could say there was a little trouble, yeah.”

Saren watched her from the corner of his eye as they headed to the bar. “Any issues with Nihlus?” he asked innocently.

Andra’s jaw clenched. “Just the usual.”

Internally, Saren sighed as they approached the table Antoria was waiting at. He suspected he knew what their problems were, but wanted to hear what Andra had to say. He shared a look with Antoria. They’d get her to talk about it.

The three looked over the recordings from the temple and Eden Prime. “They look similar to me. Maybe the differences are from the age of the tech used?” Andra commented.

The turians shrugged. Andra played the recording of her conversation with Dr. Warren and Manuel. “I think Manuel managed to activate the beacon. A lot of what he says, about the darkness and our extinction, it feels like what I got from the beacon.”

Saren considered for a moment. “Dr. Qian was my case. I’ll pass everything I had to you and Nihlus, see if fresh eyes can see something I missed.”

Andra winced at that, and Antoria noticed. “What’s wrong? You had a great deal of admiration for Nihlus during that undercover mission last year.”

Andra let her head fall to the table. Not looking up, she said “During the mission, he didn’t regret sleeping with me.”

Saren snorted. “And how do you figure that?”

Andra rolled her forehead on the table so she could glare at her uncle. “I’ve never heard of a turian throwing their bedmate out without comment or expression.” She sighed and sat up. ”The mission went fine. We got the information, the bad guys were arrested, blah blah blah. Nihlus and I were making a final pass through the hideout when one of us managed to trigger a bomb. We managed to get to cover before it blew, and we had sex to celebrate. And he threw me out without comment the next morning.”

Saren and Antoria exchanged a look. Saren said, “I’ll leave this to you ladies,” and left the bar, activating his omni-tool on the way out. 

Antoria put her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “I thought you weren’t looking for a fling?” she asked softly.

Andra dropped her head back onto the table. “I wasn’t. I’m not. We would flirt over the comms, a little. He’d keep me steady. And then, that night, he was gentle and forgiving. I’d never… not with anyone, and he helped me through it. And then, the next morning? It was like he was surprised I was still there. Like he’d gotten what he was after, and I didn’t matter anymore.”

Antoria hugged her, and Andra relaxed a bit. Of course, that’s when her comm signaled. Sighing, Andra stood up. “Duty calls, and all that. If you find any more about this, send it to me.” She walked out of the bar, answering the comm.

“I need you in Udina’s office ASAP.” Captain Anderson ordered.

“Aye aye, sir.” She replied, and set off.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————

Saren caught up with Nihlus in the Spectre offices, and found the younger turian finalizing his report on Eden Prime. “Nihlus.” 

Nihlus jumped. “Saren! What are you doing here?”

Saren leaned against the door frame, not-so-subtly blocking the only exit to the room. “My niece told me what happened between the two of you.”

Nihlus’ mandibles dropped in shock. "I swear, Sehr, I had no idea she was related to you! I only found out after! I broke it off! I won't touch her again, I swear!"

Saren glared at him. "And did it ever occur to you that she wanted you?" Nihlus froze as Saren continued "I don't care that you bedded her. I'm pissed that you kicked her out with no explanation. I didn't train a coward. But if you lack the conviction to stand beside your choices, maybe you should leave the Spectres."

Nihlus reared back as if he had been struck. "I… I hadn't thought of that. That's why she's upset?"

Saren snorted. "Upset? She's furious. I think she won't be happy until she can eviscerate you or watch you grovel." He stared at a spot over Nihlus’ head contemplatively. “Probably both, with a bit of begging and public humiliation involved.”

Nihlus looked nervous, and Saren bared his teeth. “I’m giving the two of you all my notes and records on Qian. That’s your mission now. I suggest you tell her everything you told me.” He walked off, leaving Nihlus looking very confused.

Slowly, Nihlus gathered the datapads Saren left for him, and headed to the human embassy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like repurposing dialogue from source material. It's fun. And, fyi, the but about Joker locking the pilot in a closet and stealing the Normandy actually happened in the comic He Who Laughs Best.
> 
> I'm on Tumblr at p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com, come say hi and check out the links in my header because I can't link to a patreon or advertise my commissions here!
> 
> Comments are love, as always! Thanks for reading!


	13. Chapter 13

Andra could hear the yelling from the ambassador’s office from halfway down the hall. Bracing herself, she opened the door.

“This is an outrage!” Udina was yelling at one of the council’s aides. “The council would be doing something if the geth attacked a turian colony!”

“Yes, but this was, firstly, a human leading the attacks on a human colony, and secondly, well outside of Citadel space.” Andra said as she strode in. “Those facts combine to make this a purely human matter, and not worth wasting the Council’s time.”

The aide, an asari in her maiden years, nodded. “The Spectre Nihlus Kryik will remain, of course, but this is, as the Commander pointed out, a human matter.” She left, flashing Andra a grin on the way out.

Udina glared at her. “That beacon would have given us greater standing with the council.”

She cut him off. “And my being made a Spectre will give us an even larger one. You want to improve my chances? Keep your head down and don’t talk to the Council until I’ve succeeded.”

Udina glowered at her. “I still say it should be a human raised by humans representing us with the Spectres.”

“Tough shit. They picked me, and you’re stuck with their decision.” 

The doors opened again, and Nihlus entered with Anderson. “I’ve been looking over Saren and Anderson’s notes about Qian, and I received the copies of the notes from Palaven. I’ll be collating data for a while, but I need your input, Shepard.” Nihlus seemed unconcerned, and Udina looked about ready to start screaming.

“All right. There’s an empty desk over there, or we could hit up the bar down the hall.”

Nihlus seemed to consider this. “I work better if I can walk and talk.”

Andra nodded and herded him back out the door. “If you don’t mind a quick interruption, fine. I need to see my money volus while I’m here.”

As the door closed, they could hear Anderson saying, “I need to put the Normandy under Commander Shepard’s command.” The doors hissed closed but they hardly muffled Udina’s outraged scream.

Andra danced happily for a few steps. “Oh, but I do love pissing that man off.” She turned to Nihlus, and he felt his heart twist as he saw her guard coming up. “So. Qian was working on an AI, mind control, and these… You know what. I refuse to start calling them zombies. They’re husks now. What else do we know?”

“There was another human at Palaven, one Jack Harper. Apparently, he escaped before the ship reached Earth, and no one has seen or heard from him since.”

“Hmmmmm. Do we have a picture?”

“From 26 years ago, yes.” Nihlus pulled up the image.

“Huh. He was kinda good-looking. Shame he tried to kill me. And if you will excuse me, I need to see a volus about an investment.” She ducked into a small storefront while Nihlus blinked in astonishment.

Once inside, she scanned the room. Barla Von hadn’t changed anything since her last visit. “Welcome, Earth-clan!” the volus cried when he saw her.

“Nope, still Palaven-clan, Barla.”

“Ah, Commander, welcome! What can I do for you?” 

“Sell all my stocks in human colonies and spread it out in weapon manufacturers. Also, I’m looking into any info on a human, Dr. Shu Qian. Your boss feel like sharing anything?”

The volus looked at her, then consulted a screen to his left. “After selling your colony stocks, you gained 500000 credits.”

“In that case, put half into my retirement, and the rest in weapons.”

“Very well, any in particular?”

She shrugged. “Surprise me.”

“One of my employer’s agents has decided to double cross him. Fist runs the nightclub Chora’s Den. There is a krogan mercenary after him, courtesy of my employer, but he did recently obtain information about a human working with geth.”

“Ahh. Useful. Go ahead and take your fee from my account.” Andra called as she turned to leave.

“My employer wished you to have the information gratis.”

She stopped and turned, “Truly? Fist must be good at pissing people off. Thanks, Barla.”

She went out to find Nihlus talking to another turian. “All right, let’s go.”

The other turian turned when she started speaking. “Well, that’s a familiar tone.”

Andra stopped and gasped “Garrus!” She ran over and hugged him, laughing. Dropping down, she held his shoulders while she studied him. “Finally grew into yourself, I see. Last time I saw you, you were all limbs.”

Garrus chuckled. “I was here to talk to you, actually. There’s a human, Fist, runs Chora’s Den.”

“He has info on the geth and Qian. I’d heard. So, Nihlus, there’s also a krogan merc after Fist. Courtesy of the Shadow Broker.”

Garrus nodded. “Yeah. Fist made a complaint, and we brought him down to the CSEC academy for… questioning.”

Andra continued, “A krogan could be useful. How about Garrus and I go deal with Fist, and you go see if the krogan is inclined to cooperate?”

Nihlus clicked his mandibles. “You deal with the krogan. Garrus and I will tackle Fist.”

Andra nodded and turned to Garrus. “Don’t do anything stupid, and see if you can get his source. And don’t let him make you do all the dirty work. He’s a big boy, he can carry his own weight.”

Garrus laughed as Nihlus glared at the pair of them. “Come on.” He snarled at Garrus, and they headed to the shuttle for the wards. “So, how do you know Shepard?” Nihlus finally asked when the shuttle landed. 

“She lived five streets over from me on Palaven. She used to come over for target practice. Used to piss me off that she was better than me.”

Nihlus snarled to himself, and they entered the club. 

———————————————————————————————

Andra entered CSEC Academy. The krogan wasn’t hard to spot, standing off to one side in a crowd of turian and saliarian officers. She waited until most of the officers had left, and sauntered up to the krogan. “Rumor has it you’re after Fist.”

The krogan grunted.

“So am I. Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy and Spectre candidate. I’ll help you get him, I just want his intel.”

The krogan studied her. She studied him back, standing at parade rest. Finally, the krogan said, “Urdnot Wrex. You’ll get your intel.”

“Good to have you, Wrex. Shall we proceed to the club?” She held out her arm to him. He chuckled dryly, and offered his in return. Laughing, she took it, and they walked arm-in-arm to the club. They took a shortcut through a back alley and found a quarian surrounded by some humans and a turian.

“Did you bring it?” the turian was asking.

“Where’s the Shadow Broker? Where’s Fist?” the quarian demanded.

Andra and Wrex exchanged a look. In unison they drew their pistols and ducked into cover on either side of the door. Andra took out the turian, and the quarian threw a grenade and headed to cover off to one side. Wrex and Andra finished off the last of the humans, then Andra went to check on the quarian.

“Are you all right?” Andra asked.

“I know how to handle myself. Not that I don’t appreciate the help.”

“Commander Shepard. You should know, the Shadow Broker never meets anyone in person.”

The quarian held out a hand. “Tali’Zora nar Rayya.”

Andra shook it. Just then, Garrus and Nihlus came charging down the far end of the alley, weapons at the ready.

Andra moved to place Tali’Zora behind her. “Hi, boys. How was the club?”

Garrus smiled at her. “You know how those kids of clubs are. All that shooting, and terrible service. Drinks are watered down, too.” She laughed, and he continued in all seriousness, “Fist said there was a quarian who had info on Qian that he was going to sell out to Qian. I’m assuming that would be you?” he nodded to Tali’Zora.

“I knew he sold me out!” she cried.

Andra held her hands up, “All right everyone just calm down. Garrus. Has Fist been dealt with, yes or no?”

Garrus snapped to attention, “Yes, Ma’am.”

She turned to Wrex. “Does that satisfy your contract, or do you need to see the body?”

“That’ll satisfy the contract, yes.”

Nodding, she turned to Tali. “I need your information. What do you want for it?”

Tali might have looked surprised, it was hard to tell through the mask. “Take me with you. Qian is using geth, and any information about them I can bring back to the Flotilla will be useful.”

Andra clapped her hands and turned to Nihlus, “Is this my show or yours? I’m just a candidate, you’re the full Spectre. It’s your call.”

Nihlus seemed to consider this. “I have the right to override any decision, but it’s your show.”

“All right, here’s what we’re going to do. Tali, you’re coming with us. I want your info, and this way we can get you info on the geth faster. Besides, you are good in a fight. Garrus, Wrex, you two want to see this through?”

Garrus nodded almost immediately, while Wrex seemed to think about it. “Alright. This might be interesting,” Wrex said after a moment.

“Okay. Garrus, tell your superiors in CSEC that you have been commandeered into a Spectre investigation, he wants to complain, direct him to Nihlus. Wrex, do whatever you need to do to get paid and out of the Shadow Broker’s contract. Tali, Nihlus, make whatever arrangements you need. Everyone meet at dock 422 at the Normandy.”

Garrus and Wrex nodded and headed off to CSEC together. Tali headed in the opposite direction, and Nihlus stood there and stared at her. 

“What?” she snapped when the silence had stretched on long enough.

_I love you I miss you I’m sorry I hurt you_ all swirled through Nihlus’ mind as he stood in the blood-soaked alley. He didn’t know how to broach the subject, so he shoved it all to the back of his mind and said, “I’ll need to make some requisitions for you. What is your preferred weapon?”

Andra thought she had seen… something cross Nihlus’ face, but shook the feeling off. “Sniper rifle and pistol. I can use assault rifles, too, but I’m a better sniper than melee fighter.”

He nodded acknowledgment and headed off to the Spectre offices.

Andra considered calling after him, seeing if what she thought she had seen was truly there, but let him go and headed to the Normandy. She had requisitions of her own to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love the mental image of Wrex and Shepard walking arm-in-arm into a firefight. It makes me happy. (and if anyone wants to draw this, Shep's the default face). I also love getting to play with the differences between Nihlus and Garrus.
> 
> Comments are love!
> 
> I'm open for commissions at my tumblr: p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com


	14. Chapter 14

Anderson met Andra outside the Normandy. “They didn’t like it, but the Alliance brass recognizes you as the Normandy’s Captain, Commander.” He looked like he was trying to find the words to continue.

“And what concessions do I have to follow?” Andra asked. She knew that the Alliance would not willingly give up control of a ship like the Normandy.

Anderson shot her a crooked grin, “She is still an Alliance vessel. If the top brass has a mission for you, you take it.”

Andra nodded. “Did they have any leads for Qian or the geth?”

“We’ve received reports of geth attacks on our colony on Feros. Seems like a good place to start.”

Andra nodded. “Thanks, sir. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go steal the captains cabin before a certain Spectre arrives.”

Anderson laughed at that, and she entered her ship. _Joker’s in the cockpit because he practically lives in the cockpit of whatever he’s flying, Dr. Chakwas is in the med bay because she lives there, everyone else took shore leave and should be arriving over the next hour._

She quickly headed to the cabin, dumping her belongings on the floor. Piling up the pillows and blankets on the bed, she stowed away the rest of her belongings then sat at the desk and made sure the food, fuel and ammo stores were sufficient for the journey. She placed an order for more dextro food, as all the Normandy had was ration bars and she knew how awful those were, and for a shipment of food scrubbers, and they were golden.

She looked up at a knock on the door frame. “Enter.” she called.

The door opened to reveal Garrus. “Your pilot said you’d be here. Finally got quarters of your own?”

She chuckled, “Not the way I’d want to earn them, but yeah. Where were you planning on bunking? Engineering or the hold?”

Garrus rolled his eyes. “Considering Tali’s reaction to the engine, I think I’d only get to sleep in the hold.”

She grabbed his arm and dragged him out of her quarters. “I have work. Come on. I feel like I should be apologizing to you,” she said as she grabbed some water from the galley.

He caught the bottle she tossed his way, “Oh? Does this have something to do with Nihlus?”

“Spirits. He didn’t interrogate you about me, did he?”

Garrus chuckled as the elevator descended to the hold. “Not really. Just asked how long we’ve known each other and the like. You bedded him.” Garrus watched her closely, knowing her well enough to tell she was hurting, and wanting to help her heal.

Andra winced. “Yeah. It ended… badly.”

Garrus hit the emergency stop on the elevator, and cradled her face in his hands. Gently, he pressed his forehead to hers. “You deserve better.”

She sighed, and reached up a hand to cup his jaw, “I know. Your timing could use some work, though.”

He smiled and pulled away, feeling her hand fall as he moved. He restarted the elevator, and said offhandedly, “Do you want me to yell at him, or pretend that I’m oblivious?”

She laughed and hit his arm. “Whatever makes you happy, Gar.” Her omni-tool pinged, and she huffed, frustrated. “Crap. It’s Himself. Check the delivery coming in. It should be dextro for you three and scrubbers for Tali.” She waved at Wrex as she headed back into the elevator, muttering to herself. 

On the bridge, Nihlus was studying the galaxy map. “There’s been an incident on Noveria. A distress beacon was activated and deactivated, but no one sounded the ‘all clear’. The executives for Binary Helix want a Spectre to look into it.”

“Geth attacks on a colony take priority. Call Saren, see if he wants to go yell at bureaucrats. We can drop him off on the way to Feros.”

Nihlus chuffed, and activated his omni-tool. After bringing Saren up to speed, he ended the transmission, saying, “He should be here shortly.”

Andra nodded as Alenko and Williams walked past, gear slung over their shoulders. Jenkins limped up behind them. “Jenkins! You’re on light duty until Chakwas clears you!” Andra called as he went past.

“Aye, aye, Ma’am!”

Saren walked down the corridor. “Permission to board?”

“Granted, as you’re already here.”

“Nice ship. If you’ve no objections, I’d like to bring Tali and Wrex to Noveria.”

Andra blinked. “I was hoping to get Tali’s insights on the geth activity on Feros, but she’s just a kid on her Pilgrimage so I’d be happier with her out of the way. Why do you want them?”

Saren grinned. “The bureaucrats hate having Spectres show up. I enjoy making them uncomfortable.”

Andra nodded at that, “Wrex is in the cargo hold, Tali is in Engineering. Go talk to them.”

As Saren left, Nihlus watched her. “What is the plan?”

Andra set the ship’s course to Noveria and answered, “Right now, get Saren to Noveria and then us to Feros. Everything else can wait until we get more details.”

Nihlus agreed. Planning the entirety of a mission in advance was foolhardy, and made it difficult to react to changing situations. He braced himself and said, “Once this mission is concluded, we need to talk. I behaved… poorly, and you deserve an explanation.”

Andra stared after him as he headed down to the crew deck. _That was… odd._ She shook her head and went to watch the Normandy’s arrival on Noveria.

She grated a bit at Noveria control’s statement that the ship would be impounded if they could not prove they had a Spectre aboard. She told Saren, and watched as her uncle disembarked with the krogan and quarian in tow. After a brief wait, they received confirmation and departed for Feros. Once through the first relay, she did a quick comm check, and verified that Saren and his squad could still contact the Normandy as needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we've hit my favorite few chapters. The next four chapters are bouncing back and forth between Noveria and Feros. Also! I wrote a scene and decided I didn't like it in this, so I removed it, but I'm going to share it as an Alternate Scene once I share the final version.
> 
> I've got commissions open on p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com, if anyone is interested.
> 
> Comments are love! Thanks for reading!


	15. Chapter 15

Saren nodded when Andra informed him of Noveria’s ultimatum. He wasn’t too concerned, he had been to Noveria a few times, both as a Spectre and a stockholder. He showed his credentials and smiled to himself as he heard the Normandy take off. His niece could be rather impatient at times.

He led Wrex and Tali through the security checkpoints and to the administrator’s office. He nodded at Giana Parasini, the internal affairs officer investigating Anoleis’ corruption. He hoped she could build her case soon. That dress really didn’t suit her.

“Sehr Arterius! What a pleasant surprise!” she said as they entered. “What brings you to Noveria today?”

“Spectre business, I’m afraid. I’ll need access to the garage and a pass for a mako.” Saren kept his tone coolly professional.

Administrator Anoleis came around the corner, having been warned of the Spectre’s arrival by security. “Unfortunately, all access outside of Port Hanshan has been cut off until the storm passes.”

Slowly, Saren turned to him. He was gratified to see the salarian back up a pace. “I am here on official Spectre business. The storm is not bad enough to affect a mako. You will grant me access now, or I will have you brought up on charges. Although,” he began contemplatively, “It would be simpler for me to just shoot you.”

The salarian paled. “All right. I’ll grant you access to the garage, and tell the garage staff to set you up with a mako. Never let it be said that I did not help the Spectres.”

Once they were clear of the office, Tali turned to Saren, “You wouldn’t really shoot him, would you?”

Saren glanced at her. “Maybe to wound. The paperwork really isn’t worth it to just shoot everyone who stands in my way.”

Wrex snorted in amusement at that.

Once in the mako, Saren continued. “While being a Spectre does mean I could, it’s easier to play up a reputation. Everyone believes that I will shoot first and ask questions when it suits me, which makes things like this easier. Nihlus always tries to talk to everyone first. Had he been here, he would still be jumping through Anoleis’ hoops.”

Tali nodded, “So you want them to think you’re meaner than you really are, to make them more likely to do what you want.”

As they approached the garage entrance to Peak 15, Saren slowed the mako to a stop. There was a second mako outside the doors, lying on its roof while it burned merrily. They exited the mako, weapons at the ready. Saren led the trio to the access door and entered first. The small alcove was clear. 

As they entered the garage proper, they were met with a handful of krogan mercenaries. Saren and Tali opened fire while Wrex prepared a biotic pulse that threw several of the mercs off their feet. As they moved deeper into the station, Wrex grabbed a shotgun from one of the downed mercs and handed it to Tali.

“Here. It’ll suit your style a bit better,” he told her gruffly as he walked past.

“Wha… I… I can’t shoot this! I don’t know how!” Tali cried after Wrex.

“I’ll teach you.” Wrex seemed amused at her reaction.

Saren barely listened to the byplay, focusing on the station’s VI announcing the damages to the station.

“Draaf. We’ll have to do some repairs before we can get to where the beacon was set off.” Saren called over to the other two. “And since they shouldn’t have mercenaries…. Something is going on, and I hate that I have no idea what I’m walking into.”

“Agreed.” Wrex grunted.

They headed deeper into the station. The first hallway they came to was guarded by two turrets, facing deeper into the station. “What idiot set up the turrets backwards?” Tali asked, incredulously.

“Someone who wants to keep something in more than us out.” Saren replied, grimly.

They took the elevator in silence, wondering what lay ahead. On the next floor, there were signs of fighting. Several corpses lay scattered around. Idly, Saren noted that they were all human. A little surprising, but not particularly. Binary Helix owned most of the labs on Peak 15, and had a mostly human staff. Moving on, they stopped when they heard a noise in the vents.

They stood, back-to-back, as the scanned the area for the source. Saren saw an insect-like creature crawl out of a vent and come charging at the trio. He and Wrex took it out, then Saren turned to assist Tali with a larger one coming up behind. Wrex finished off a third one, and they stood for a moment, listening for more.

Saren walked over to one of the larger ones. “I’ve never seen anything like this. This is bad. Keep your guard up.” He sent scans of the bodies and a copy of the recording to the Citadel, along with a query about the identity of the creature, and gestured that they should move on.

Once on the third floor, they dealt with several of the smaller creatures. Saren and Wrex cleared the vents in the room, and Saren entered the VI core. After activating the core and clearing his credentials with the VI, Saren received the list of repairs needed.

They finished the repairs quickly, Wrex grumbling about not being maintenance the whole time. Once the tramways were back online, Saren reactivated the VI.

“Saren Arterius, Council Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. There was a distress beacon activated in this complex. What location was it sent from, and who activated it?”

“Working. Council status recognized. The beacon was activated and deactivated on Rift Station. Records show that the signal was activated by Lady Benezia.”

“When did the Matriarch arrive?” Saren asked, somewhat surprised.

“Lady Benezia has been at Rift Station for fifteen hours.”

“No further queries.”

“Logging you out.”

Saren led the way to the tramway, thinking out loud. “Lady Benezia arrived here and set a distress beacon. Almost immediately, she deactivated it. Asari Matriarchs have followers, always asari, mostly combat trained. There were no asari in the garage.” He sat on a bench on the tram while Tali sent it to Rift Station. “What in oblivion is going on?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Saren and company on Noveria! I had another version of this that I really liked that will be going up as part 3 of this series.
> 
> Follow me on tumblr! p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com
> 
> Comments are love! Thanks for reading my weird-ass AU!


	16. Chapter 16

As the Normandy landed on Feros, Andra grabbed Garrus and Nihlus. “Come on. I’m starting to hate dealing with the geth, and I want you two at my back.” She heard Williams say something under her breath, but decided to address it at another time. Ashley hadn’t shown any outright dislike of any aliens on the ship as of yet, and Andra didn’t want to push what wasn’t an issue.

Once they were clear of the airlock, they were met by one of the locals. “We saw your ship. Fai Dan wants to speak with you immediately.”

“Who’s Fai Dan?” Andra asked. She kept her hand on the butt of her pistol. The man’s voice was… off somehow. The pacing of his speech was strange. _Something’s not right here…._

“He’s our leader. He needs your help do deal with the geth. They’re making another push. Please. Up the stairs, past the freighter.”

Before he could direct them further, a rocket came flying down the passage and caught the man clean in the side. The turians went to cover on either side of Andra, Nihlus drawing his assault rifle, Garrus his sniper rifle. Andra ran to forward cover and drew her pistol. With the turians providing covering fire, she quickly took down the geth in the passage.

“So, anyone care to speculate on why they sent someone who was stoned out of his mind to get us?” Andra asked after sounding the all clear. 

Garrus looked confused, “Wait, what? How did you get that he was stoned?”

Nihlus snorted, “His speech patterns were off. He was pausing randomly, not at a point where most humans would pause.”

“Congrats, Nihlus. You get a cookie. But why a stoner?” Andra paused on the stairwell. “Hold. I think I saw something.”

Easing around a support beam, Andra saw two geth on the wall of the corridor. _Huh. Looks like a tree frog had a baby with a geth._ Signaling to Garrus, she nodded and they surged around the pillar and took out the two geth.

“Very nice. You’ve finally gotten your ass in gear and to the range. Still not quite centered, but you’ll do.” Andra laughed as she headed to the colony proper.

Garrus chuffed a laugh, “I only missed the center because you gave an incorrect location.”

“That’s what aiming is for!” she smacked him lightly on the arm, Nihlus silently fuming behind them.

As they entered the colony, Andra forced the grin off her face. She felt Garrus shift so he and Nihlus were flanking her. The colonists spoke around her, commenting that it was good that soldiers had arrived, some making minor complaints about the colony. Andra filed those away, the water, the varren, the generator, and decided to handle them if the opportunity arose. _These people have been through a lot. It’d be easy to get the water back on, and varren are easy. Should be an old battery or two I can scrounge up, too._

She considered approaching a man trying to calm an armed woman down when he turned to her. “Oh, commander! I’m glad to see they finally sent someone to help us.”

“You’re a bit late, aren’t you?” the woman snapped.

“Arcellia! Sorry, everyone’s been on edge since-” He broke off as the unmistakable sound of geth came from the far passage.

“Watch out! We’ve got geth in the tower!” Arcellia called.

Fai dan called “Protect the heart of the colony!”

Andra and Nihlus moved to cover the doorway, while Garrus shot the first two through the door. Andra nodded at Nihlus, and together they entered the hall, each taking out a geth. They headed up the staircase and cleared the landing. Andra checked a room, shot two geth and sounded “Clear!”

Nihlus and Garrus continued further down the hall and wound up in a brief fight with a small cluster of geth. Andra came up behind them to assist. She gestured to a staircase leading down, and they moved on. Once at the bottom of the stairs, they encountered a small number of geth. They mowed through the geth quickly, and Andra leaned on Garrus when they were clear.

“Hold on a sec, boys. I think the water pump is down here. One of the colonists mentioned it not working.”

“Are you going to stop and fix everyone’s problems?” Nihlus asked, irritated.

Andra shrugged and opened the first valve. “Seems kinda stupid to save a colony and let it die off.” She found and opened the second valve. “Could just be me, though.” She moved on to the third valve. “You got a problem, take charge. My mission, I say help the civilians.”

She noticed an old earth mover in a room off the main corridor, and gestured to Garrus. “Hey! Wanna gut another old vehicle?”

Garrus winced, but went to help her. “Please. My back is still screaming from the last one.”

Andra pulled the first battery free. “That’s why you’re supposed to lift with your knees, dear heart.”

Garrus chuckled and pulled the second battery free. They drew their pistols in unison as they heard a growl above them. They shot the alpha varren, and the rest of the pack attacked en masse. They made quick work of the beasts and Andra blew imaginary smoke from the muzzle of her pistol. “I love it when it’s easy, don’t you?” 

Garrus laughed and grabbed the batteries. “Let’s go check in with Fai Dan.”

They met with the leader of the colony where they had left him. Fai Dan greeted them warmly as they approached. “The tower is secure, thanks to you.”

“I’m just glad the colony is safe. We got the water turned back on, and dealt with a pack of rabid varren for you. Also, we dug up these batteries, might be a help with you generator.”

“Again, my thanks, Commander. Not many would have gone out of their way to help like this.” Fai Dan said, pleased.

Nihlus stepped forward, “The geth will likely return. We need to find their base.”

Arcellia shrugged, “They’re based out of the ExoGeni headquarters. The skyway leads right there. But there’s an army of geth between here and there.”

Andra just looked at her. “I never expected this to be easy. Where’s the skyway?”

“Take the elevator to the garage. There’s a mako.”

Andra gathered her turians and headed out. In the elevator, Garrus turned to her. “If you get behind the wheel of that mako, I’m going to shoot you.”

Andra laughed. “My mission. I outrank you. I’m driving.”

Nihlus looked between them. "She can't be that bad. Get in."

Andra grinned at him, and shot a smug glance at Garrus.

Garrus looked mournfully at the ceiling. “I wonder if I could jump….”

Andra smacked his shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day!
> 
> So, Feros, and the return of Nihlus's rampant jealousy, and the first of many cracks about Shepard's inability to drive.
> 
> Comments are love!
> 
> Come visit me at p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com (I have commissions open, and links to my other thins there)


	17. Chapter 17

As they rode the tram out to the Rift Station research center, Tali chattered happily to Wrex about the shotgun he had given her. Saren smiled, “Sounds like someone has a new favorite weapon.” 

Tali laughed, “I do! I can’t believe I didn’t think to get one sooner!”

Once they reached Rift Station, they carefully disembarked. Saren and Wrex ensured the area was secure, then led the way to the main hall. They found two elevators, leading to the Hot Labs and the main level.

Saren asked Tali, “There was a locked door back there. Think you can override it?”

Tali seemed to think about it, “I can try. Looks like we can get there by going around, too.”

She stepped up to the lock and examined it. “Should be simple enough.” She activated her omni-tool and got to work. A few moments later, the indicator switched to green. 

“Very well done, Tali’Zora.” Saren drew his pistol, and they opened the door. 

Wrex covered Saren as the Spectre slid into the room. He eased around a crate of supplies to get a better view of the room. On a central platform, there were a number of armed humans surrounding a lone asari. They were all clustered around what appeared to be a holding tank of some variety. Slowly, Saren signaled that the other two should stay well back. He inched closer until he could hear the debate on the platform.

“It’s very simple, Lady Benezia. Get the location of the Mu Relay from that thing, and we won’t be forced to hurt your daughter.” The speaker sounded almost bored as he issued the threat.

“I will never do anything to help Cerberus.” the asari snarled in reply. Saren considered his odds, and rose slightly from behind the crates. Once he was sure Benezia had seen him, he gestured at her to drop. The Matriarch’s eyes widened slightly, and she gave an infinitesimal nod. 

Saren rose fully from behind the crates, delivering clean headshots to two of the humans before they noticed him. Wrex came charging in once the shooting started, acting as a shield for Tali, who was enjoying her new shotgun far too much. Once Saren’s backup arrived, however, Lady Benezia joined in the fight. 

“It is truly awe-inspiring to watch two gifted biotics lay waste to a firefight. Especially when they are on my side.” Saren said idly a short time later. “Lady Benezia, I am Spectre Saren Arterius. My companions, Urdnot Wrex and Tali’Zora nar Rayya. I’m assuming you activated the distress beacon?”

The asari smiled. “Indeed. Cerberus managed to capture me and were threatening my daughter’s safety if I did not aid them.”

“Two questions, before you leave. Why did they wish the location of the Mu relay, and what is that?”

Lady Benezia walked closer. “That is a rachni queen. They pass down memories from one generation to another. Fascinating, really. I do not know why they wished to know of the Mu relay, however.” As she moved to leave, however, a string of ethereal music filled the air and she froze. She turned to the rachni and stepped closer. “Are you certain?” She paused, listening. “Very well. I thank you for this.”

Benezia turned back to Saren. “Apparently, the queen managed to gain that information from one of the agents. The Mu relay access the planet Ilos, which holds something called a Conduit. She knows not why Cerberus is seeking this Conduit, but she claims that it will lead to a great blackness that will destroy all that stands before it. This blackness is what led to the past madness of the rachni.”

Saren mounted the stairs to the central platform and looked at the rachni queen. “Does this blackness cause corpses to rise?”

The music changed, and Benezia replied, “Yes. It has started gaining power, and will soon strike.”

Saren studied the controls on the tank. “It looks like they rigged the tank to flood with a toxin, correct?”

Benezia nodded slowly. “Yes. The scientists felt that it would prove necessary if they could not control her. You have the power to end the rachni race again, Spectre.”

Saren considered the controls. “Wrex. You and Tali are witnesses, if this all goes to oblivion, feel free to blame me.” He entered the release command.

“You would free her? Wait… She thanks you for allowing the rachni to seek out new songs, and asks a boon. The humans here sought out an egg, to clone soldiers. They found her, and took her children from her before they could learn to sing. They must be destroyed, for their own good. They have grown mad, away from the music. She asks you to end their suffering.” Benezia watched as the rachni left the room. “I would ask a boon as well, Spectre. My daughter is being hunted, unknowing of her danger. Come with me to save her?”

“Alright. A moment.” Saren stepped away and hailed the Normandy.

“Commander won’t be happy you’re taking her ship,” Wrex commented.

“Spectre Arterius, what a surprise!” Joker called over the comm.

“I need a lift from Noveria to… Where is your daughter, again?”

“Therum. She was researching some Prothean ruins.” Benezia replied.

“Transport from Noveria to Therum, Joker.” Saren informed the pilot.

“No can do, Spectre. The Normandy is on a Spectre mission on Feros at the moment. I can pick you up there and drop you here, but I can’t go gallivanting around without my captain. You understand.” Joker returned.

“Alright. Inform Commander Art- Shepard that I require your services, and transport to Therum as soon as possible.” Saren winced a bit as he stumbled over his niece’s chosen name.

“Will do. Normandy out.”

Saren turned to his companions when Benezia spoke. “The Hot Labs have a neutron purge system set up. I heard the Cerberus agents mention it.”

Saren nodded. “I am going to go set that off, then. You are welcome to accompany me, or wait at the tram, as you see fit.”

“We’ll come, too.” Tali said after a brief pause.

They trooped over to the elevator, Tali hacking the door again, when Wrex spoke up.

“I saw the maps, doesn’t look to big down there. If Tali and Benezia stay here, it’ll make things easier on me’n Saren when we get down to fighting. Just a thought.” He shrugged.

Benezia agreed, “Yes. We will stay here in case there are any more Cerberus agents on the station.”

Wrex and Saren entered the elevator. Once the doors were closed and they started their descent, Saren turned to Wrex. “If you are going to have an issue with my choice over the rachni, speak now.”

Wrex grunted. “Nope. I have a recording of you saying it’s your fault. Everyone can blame the turians if it all goes pear-shaped.” He shrugged his armor into a more comfortable position. “Be useful for trying to get the genophage cured.”

Saren looked at him side-eyed. “Talk to my niece. I think she was hoping to adopt a baby krogan to get her mother off her back.”

Wrex tilted his head, “Niece?”

Saren laughed, “Commander Shepard, though there’s not much of a family resemblance.”

Wrex looked surprised. “Really? There’s gotta be a story behind that.”

The elevator doors opened, revealing a mostly empty room with a lone human sitting slumped in a chair. Cautiously, Saren and Wrex approached the man.

“Are you here to secure the situation?” he asked weakly.

“If you mean exterminate the rachni, yes.” Saren replied.

“There is a neutron purge system based in the next room. It will kill everything in the station. The rachni will be dead.”

Saren activated the comm system. “Tali. Ask Benezia if there were any civilians left on the station.”

After a brief pause Tali replied, “She said they were all evacuated by Cerberus. Anyone still here is likely a Cerberus operative.”

Saren turned to the man. “Cerberus evacuated this station. Why are you still here?”

The man grimaced. “I was trying to activate the neutron purge after Cerberus showed up. They shot me, left me as dead. Here. The codes for the neutron purge are-” he cut off with a gurgle as a claw ripped it’s way through his torso. The rachni lifted his body and flung it past Wrex.

Saren and Wrex opened fire and made short work of the rachni. Saren searched the body and found a notepad with the codes printed out. They headed into the next room, weapons at low ready, and Saren activated the Mira station.

“Online. How can I help you, Spectre?” the VI asked in its blandly pleasant voice.

“Activate neuron purge.” Saren ordered.

“I’m sorry, I can’t do that without proper authorization.”

“Input code 875-020-079, Code Omega local execution.” Saren barked.

“Verified. Code Omega execution in 120 seconds.”

“Draaf. I wish there was more time on that.” Saren muttered as the enraged shrieks of rachni came from the other room.

“Less talking, more shooting,” Wrex decided as he waded in, shotgun barking and biotics blazing.

_I’m getting too old for this draaf. _Saren decided, as he followed the krogan onto the killing floor.__

__They just cleared enough of the rachni to reach the elevator, and for the doors to hiss closed. Saren sagged against the wall, Wrex leaning beside him. In silence, they rode to the tram station._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finishing up Noveria the Spectre way (and I still say that you should be able to hack that lock).
> 
> Comments are love!
> 
> I have commissions open, info on my Tumblr: p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com


	18. Chapter 18

“You both scream like girls.” Andra informed her companions as they exited the mako.

Nihlus took several shaking steps away from the mako, eyes wide and staring. “You drive like a maniac!” he yelled at her.

“That geth was going to shoot us. The mako has thrusters. Why not jump incoming fire?” Andra asked reasonably.

Garrus just sat on a pile of rubble, head between his knees.

“Oh, quit whining. Come on. The transmissions were coming from down here.” Andra drew her pistol and headed down the ramp. 

Garrus and Nihlus shared a look. “If you knock her out, one of us could drive.” Garrus said calmly.

“And why am I knocking her out?” Nihlus wanted to know.

“You’re a Spectre. You outrank her. You might be able to avoid her wrath.” Garrus stood up.

“Move your turian asses! We got civilians down here!” Andra yelled from down the passage.

Nihlus sighed. “I think we’re going to need her awake and aware for this.”

“We’re going to have to get back into the mako, aren’t we?” Garrus asked, sadly.

Nihlus nodded, and they followed Andra down the ramp.

There, the turians found Andra deep in an argument between a man and a woman. Andra was obviously trying, and failing, to placate them.

“Ignore him, he only cares about ‘the company’.” the woman was saying as they approached.

“I’m just trying to clear out the geth” Andra said, rubbing her temple.

“It’s just a little further down the skyway.” the woman pointed out.

“Those offices are private property, soldier, so remove the geth and nothing else!” the man snapped.

Garrus tried hard not to grin. He was surprised Andra hadn’t decked him yet. 

The woman rolled her eyes at Andra and said, “Before you go, my daughter, Lizbeth. She’s missing.”

Andra held up a hand before the man could say anything. “If I find her, I’ll bring her here. Is there anything else I should know?”

“Nothing comes to mind.” the woman said carefully.

Andra nodded and led the way back to the mako. The two turians shared a look and entered behind her.

After a brief and cringe-inducing trip, they finally reached ExoGeni headquarters. Andra parked the mako and the three disembarked. As they approached the entrance, Nihlus signaled an enemy ahead. Garrus and Andra took cover, while Nihlus opened fire. The geth charged their position, but were swiftly cut down.

When the entry was clear, Andra received a transmission from Joker. “Hey, Commander. Spectre Saren just called. He needs a pickup from Noveria.”

Andra swore. “Pick him up and drop him in Zhu’s Hope. Something’s off there and I want his impression.”

“Aye aye ma’am. Why would he call you Commander Art-something?” Joker asked.

“It’s a long story. Buy me a drink sometime and I’ll tell you.”

“You’re no fun. Normandy out.” Joker complained as he broke transmission.

“Why not let your people know about your upbringing?” Garrus wanted to know as they headed deeper into the building.

“Couple reasons. People get weird when they find out I’m adopted, doubly so with the whole ‘mom died in childbirth, dad was never in the picture’ bit. They also don’t know how to act when I tell them I was raised on Palaven. Half of them think I’m spying on humanity for the turians,” Garrus snorted at that. “I know, right? The other half decide that this is tragic, I can’t possibly know anything about being human, blah blah blah. Easier all around to avoid it entirely.”

“You would deny the connection to your family?” Nihlus asked, shocked.

“Nope. I won’t deny it if asked, I just don’t feel like flaunting it to all and sundry. And, moving on, it looks like we’ve got an impenetrable barrier on the easy way through.”

Garrus called out, “Looks like there’s a back way here, but you might have some difficulty getting back up.”

Andra went over to study the hole. “Hmmmmmmm. All right, you two wait up here, I’m going down to check it out. I’m pretty sure I could get far enough up the wall for you two to drag me out if it’s a dead end.”

Nihlus nodded an agreement, and Andra jumped down the hole. She drew her pistol and headed down the passage. She peered around the corner and drew back sharply when a shot rang out. She muttered “Hold” into her comm and eased forward. Moving in low, she heard a voice say “Oh! I’m sorry! I thought you were a varren, or a geth.”

Andra walked into the chamber, pistol at the ready. She saw a woman holding a pistol standing over the corpse of a varren. “Put the weapon down,” Andra instructed calmly. The other woman did, keeping her hands up. “Now, who are you?” Andra asked her.

“I’m Lizbeth Baynham. I’m a scientist here. I had stayed to back up data while everyone was running. Next thing I knew, that geth ship had attached itself to the building and the power went out.”

“Do you know anything about the barrier?” Andra asked.

“It came on after the geth showed up. I haven’t been able to get past it.”

Andra nodded. “All right. Do you know what the geth are here for?”

The woman looked a little uncomfortable, “I’m not sure, but they might be here for the thorian. It’s an indigenous life-form that ExoGeni was studying.” 

“Does that doorway access the rest of the building?”

“Yes, but you’d need a pass. Take mine. It will access the labs.”

Andra picked up the woman’s pistol and handed it back to her. “Come on. You can wait in the mako while we deal with the geth.” She led Lizbeth to where Garrus and Nihlus were waiting and gave her a boost. Garrus helped her out, and led her to the mako.

While they waited for Garrus to come back, Andra turned to Nihlus. “See if you can access anything about a thorian. Might be what the geth are here for.”

Nihlus started a search as Garrus approached. “She’s set in the mako for now, although I’m not sure she won’t try to make Zhu’s Hope and leave us here.” 

“I doubt she’d try. She seemed more concerned about the geth.” Nihlus replied, looking up from his omni-tool.

“Will you two stop talking and get in the hole?” Andra yelled at them from below.

Garrus’s mandibles twitched. “Why Andra, I thought we were working?”

“I would like to remind you, dear heart, that I can shoot you without consequence. I’m pretty sure Nihlus would help.”

Garrus looked over at Nihlus and sighed. “I love it when she’s violent.” Nihlus growled and stormed ahead, assault rifle at the ready. Andra smacked Garrus’s arm. “Too much?” he asked innocently.

As they entered the corridor, they heard a voice above them. “Stupid VI. Access encrypted files!”

Andra and Garrus eased behind Nihlus, looking up the stairwell. Andra went ahead, pistol up and covered the landing. There was a doorway leading off the landing, and she could see a human arguing with a VI in the next room. She signaled to Garrus and Nihlus behind her and lined up a shot.

Just then, the VI informed the man, “If there is nothing else, please step aside. There is a queue forming behind you for the use of the machine.” 

The man turned, startled, and Andra caught him in the neck. Garrus and Nihlus came up behind her and cleared the room. Nihlus stood watch at a second entrance to the room while the VI said, “ExoGeni Corporation would like to remind all staff that the discharging of weapons while on company property is strictly forbidden. Welcome back, Research Assistant Lizbeth Baynham. What can I do for you?”

Andra addressed the VI, “What was the previous user trying to access?”

“Fetching data. The previous user was attempting to access data on Species 37, the thorian.”

Andra felt a headache coming on. “What can you tell me about the thorian?”

“Species 37 is located within the substructure of the Zhu’s Hope outpost. The thorian is a simple plant life-form that exhibits a sentient behavior uncommon with other flora. Through dispersal and eventual inhalation of spores, it can infect and control other organisms, including humans. The Zhu’s Hope control group has yielded interesting results. Before sensors went offline, almost 86% of all test subjects were infected.”

“First zombies, now mind control plants. This week is just getting better and better.” She activated her comm to give Joker a head’s up, but couldn’t get through. “That field must be blocking transmissions. Let’s go clear out geth.”

They left the VI, and headed into the building proper. There were few pockets of geth resistance, easily handled. Andra did note the strange glowing orb that several geth had been kneeling before. It looked vaguely like the statues from the Temple Palaven recording.

Up a small flight of stairs, they found a small office with two humans inside. Andra signaled to wait, and listened. “The Illusive Man said we needed the info on this thorian thing. Can’t you hack the terminal faster? This place is creepy. I don’t trust these geth. I know Qian said they’d be allies, but I don’t know, man…”

The other man snapped, “Would you shut up! Once the Illusive man gets this info, he can get rid of Qian. But I can’t hack it if you won’t shut up!”

Andra nodded to Nihlus, and they lunged into the room, taking out the two humans before they moved. Andra glared at the bodies. “Futari Cerberus! Damn it! What possible reason could Cerberus have for… a thrice-damned mind control plant. Draaf, fuck. We need to get that barrier down, now.”

They headed down the other corridor, dealing with the geth on the way. “These claws are massive. We don’t have the ordinance to blow them.” Garrus pointed out. 

Nihlus looked down the corridor. “It looks like there’s a lab down there. Might be useful.”

When they had cleared the labs, Andra started poking around. “Well, well, well. This could be useful.”

Garrus looked over from the console he was examining. “What?”

“Busted doors. I can use them to shear off a leg.” Andra replied, jury-rigging the system to her ends. The doors snapped shut, and there was a scream of metal as the geth ship fell from the building. Andra hit up the comms again as it fell. “Joker? Come in Joker.”

“Christ, Commander, you don’t gotta yell.”

“The colonists at Zhu’s Hope are under the influence of a mind controlling plant. I’ll explain that later. Have you landed yet?”

“No. We are making our approach now, though.” Joker said cautiously.

“Abort. Wait in orbit until I contact you again. I’m transmitting some data, I need that to get to Saren.”

“Aye, aye, Ma’am. Landing is aborted. Waiting your signal. Normandy out.”

She led the way to the mako and they headed back to the ExoGeni employees hiding on the skybridge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are love!
> 
> Come poke around my blog at p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com


	19. Chapter 19

Andra waltzed into the bunker. “I don’t suppose any of you lot happen to have a nerve agent or equivalent on their person? I need to knock the entirety of Zhu’s Hope unconscious.” Everyone turned to stare at her. “No? Damn. We’ll just have to knock them unconscious the hard way.”

“What are you talking about?” Jeong demanded.

“You’re ExoGeni’s chief toady here, aren’t you? Well, I’m going to destroy the thorian, and don’t plan on abusing your colonists the way ExoGeni has been.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway. ExoGeni is going to purge the colony and start over.” Jeong sounded smug.

Andra grew very still at that. She slowly turned to face him squarely, and in a voice colder than the wind off a glacier said to him, “You are going to stand there and condone the slaughter of a colony?”

Jeong went very pale and stepped back several steps. “No! I… I mean, ExoGeni is going to give the order. There is no way to stop it.”

Andra glared at him. “Make them. Tell the story of a colony that survived a geth attack.”

Jeong considered this. “Yes, we could capitalize on this, make a profit from vid deals….I’ll just need to make a few calls….”

Andra watched as he left. Lizbeth came over, cautiously. “I think we might have a nerve gas. It’s pretty weak, but I believe that the colonists’ immune systems might be compromised, so it should work.”

“Good. We’ll take it.” Andra turned on her heel and marched out of the bunker, gesturing for Nihlus to take the gas. Garrus glanced at Nihlus, and followed her.

Once outside of the bunker, Andra sat on a pile of rubble and sighed. Wordlessly, Garrus sat beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him, resting her head against his keel. She looked over as Nihlus came up the ramp. “I’ve been a soldier for a decade. I have killed more people than I can count. And I will never understand how anyone can make an order like that. I can not understand throwing away lives just because they are inconvenient.” She sighed and got to her feet. “Come on. We need to go deal with the thorian.”

They got back into the mako and traveled the rest of the skyway in silence. As they pulled up to the Zhu’s Hope garage, Andra noticed a figure crouched on the side of the skyway.

“Potentially crazy, definitely naked guy, 2 o’clock,” Andra announced as she brought the mako to a halt. Nihlus nodded, and the three disembarked. Nihlus approached the figure as it got up. And fired wildly as it attacked him, vomiting a noxious substance on him. 

Andra studied Nihlus after the thing was dead. “You’re getting hosed off before you set foot on my ship.” she said bluntly. As Garrus laughed, she turned to him. “That applies to you, too, if you get hit with that crap. All right. You both have the nerve gas?” They nodded. “Good. I don’t want any civilian causalities. I don’t know what that thing was, but it wasn’t human. Feel free to kill them. Let’s move out.”

Andra nodded and Garrus opened the door. There were a few more of the human-like things inside, though they fell easily. The colonists guarding the elevator collapsed under the gas from a grenade thrown by Nihlus. They rode the elevator in silence, neither turian wanting to break into Andra’s introspection.

Outside the colony, they were met with several more of the things. “I don’t know why these things are being sent. They die if you poke them hard enough.” Andra grumbled as they cut through yet another group of the creepers.

“Probably trying to slow us down,” Nihlus replied, lobbing a grenade at a final cluster of colonists.

Andra headed over to the controls the last group of colonists had been guarding. It would lift the shuttle in the middle of the colony. Intrigued, she activated the controls, and was only vaguely surprised to find that it had been covering a staircase. Nihlus and Garrus turned in unison, pistols raised and focused on Fai Dan. The colony’s leader came toward them, walking as though every step was a struggle.

“I tried to fight it, but it gets in your head. You can’t imagine the pain,” he told them. “I was supposed to be their leader. These people trusted me.” He seemed to be fighting himself as he drew his pistol and aimed it at them. “It wants me to stop you, but… I… won’t!” He wrenched his hand around and pointed the pistol at his temple. “I won’t!” he yelled, as the grenade at his feet exploded, knocking him off his feet and out cold. 

The two turians slowly lowered their weapons and turned to Andra. “I meant it when I said no civilian causalities.” she said calmly, and gestured to the stairway. “Move out.”

They headed down the stairwell, pausing when sounds similar to a growl echoed through the corridor. Garrus broke the silence. “So, all we need to do is find this creature and determine what it…what it…” He broke off, staring at the massive thing before them. “This was not covered by my training manuals.”

“That’s a plant?” Nihlus asked, incredulous. 

“Well, fuck.” Andra said succinctly.

It was huge, twelve feet tall, at least, and hung suspended a full ten feet above the ground. It had numerous tentacle-like roots anchoring it to the walls of the ruined tower it resided in. It had more rootlets dangling from what on an animal species would be called a mouth, dripping some milky fluid. The thing that must have been the thorian seemed to heave, and vomited a green asari. Interesting. Andra and Nihlus traded a look and readied their weapons.

The green asari spoke. “Invaders. Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose. I speak for the Old Growth, as I did for Qian. You are within and before the thorian. It commands that you be in awe.”

Andra mentally rolled her eyes. “You gave something to Qian. Something I need.”

“Qian sought knowledge of those who are gone. The Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in the Long Cycle. Trades were made. Then cold ones killed the flesh that would tend the next cycle. Flesh fairly given! The Old Growth sees the air you push as lies. It will listen no more.”

Nihlus spoke. “If you give us this knowledge, we will hunt down those who betrayed you.”

“No more will the thorian listen to those that scurry. Your lives are short, but have gone on too long.” She started to gather together biotic forces when Garrus shot her through the chest.

“That was creepy.” Garrus said as they turned to look at him. 

Andra turned to deal with some creepers that entered from a side corridor, and saw one of the roots embedded in the wall behind the creepers. She fought her way to the root and studied it. It seemed to be a support for the mass in the center of the tower. Shrugging, she shot it.

The roar of pain and fury that echoed through the tower was almost deafening. _Well. That worked._ Andra gestured to the boys and moved deeper into the building to find a way higher up the tower. They handled a nearly endless stream of creepers, punctuated with various returns of the green asari _this thing can clone on the fly?_ as they shot as many of the roots free as they could find.

Eventually the thorian fell, its weight no longer able to be supported by the few roots left. It fell with a scream that made the turians cover their ear canals and filled Andra with a nameless dread. She sat, back against a wall and considered their options. “Good news, the colonists are free from that thing, although they really need to shrug off ExoGeni. Bad news, we have no fucking idea what Qian got from the thorian.”

Still seated, she drew her pistol on a pod on the wall opposite as it squelched open. An asari fell out. At a guess, this is the original. The asari straightened up and looked around.

“It’s… it’s gone? It’s gone!” the asari laughed. She turned and saw Andra, still sitting, weapon out, and her eyes widened. “Are you hurt? You’re the one who killed it, yes?”

Andra kept the pistol aimed at the asari and replied, “We killed it, yes. And I’m not hurt. Who are you and how did you get in there?”

The asari scowled at that. “I serve the Lady Benezia. We were captured by a human, one Dr. Qian. He sent me here to get information from the thorian, and abandoned me once he had it.”

“Why did you cooperate? You’re a commando, you could have taken him.” Nihlus said as he leaded on the door frame by Andra.

The asari whipped around to glare at him. “He threatened my Lady. She told me to cooperate, and I followed her orders.”

Andra pushed herself up and dusted off. “You still have the information?”

The asari looked at her warily. “I do.”

Andra nodded. “Give it to me, and we’ll get you back to Lady Benezia.”

The asari relaxed. “I thank you. I am Shiala. Come.” She gestured, and Andra froze. 

“You can’t put it on a disc or something?” she asked, wary.

“Unfortunately, no. I can only show you what I know.”

Andra grumbled to herself, then sighed and stepped in front of her. Shiala placed her hands on either side of Andra’s head and cried, “Embrace Eternity!” as her eyes went black.

Andra felt the remnants of the beacon react to what Shiala was doing, and her mind was engulfed with the sensations of pain, fear, paranoia, loss, despair _I will fight_ , grief, and an overwhelming knowledge that all was lost. She saw scores of her people _not my people_ being cut down by old friends who had been turned into monsters. She saw the same planet as before, and knew it to be Ilos _how?_ and knew that the key to preventing this from happening again lay there.

As Shiala severed the bond, Andra felt her legs give from under her _oh, shit, not again_ and felt armor clad arms catch her as the ground rushed up and blackness descended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I don't know how many of y'all are on Tumblr, but I'm interested in the Long Live Feedback program. Their goal is to improve communication between authors and readers. So, to borrow from one of their mockups:
> 
> I welcome:  
> -Short comments  
> -Long Comments  
> -Questions
> 
> I also love hearing what parts you liked in any given chapter! If you're uncomfortable posting a public comment here, I keep anonymous comments open on my blog at p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com, so feel free to bug me there, too!
> 
> I try to answer all my comments, although I don't answer some for various reasons. I do love hearing from everyone!


	20. Chapter 20

Andra found herself in a field of yellow flowers. She reached for her pistol, but found herself unarmed. Looking down, she saw she was in a light blue sun dress. “What.”

A laugh tinkled out from behind her. She whirled around, falling into a defensive crouch, hands raised, to see an unknown asari lounging on a blanket under a tree at the top of a small hill. Cautiously, she lowered her guard and moved up the hill. “Who are you?” she asked, eyes searching for movement.

“Oh, my. Saren was right about you, child.” The asari seemed deeply amused by Andra’s reactions.

“You’re not answering my question.” Andra pointed out.

“Very well. I am Lady Benezia. We are currently in your mind-”

“Like hell. I have never envisioned myself in a blue sun dress.”

“True, but I was trying to get you to relax, and you prefer blue. This location is of my creation,and a way for me to discuss with you the varied bits of information that have been fairly rudely shoved into your mind.”

“That’s fair enough. When are you going to get out?”

———————————————————

Andra woke to find her uncle staring down at her. “You need to stop finding things to mess with your head. Unless you enjoy being carted to a medical center like a… what is that human expression? Oh, yes. A damsel in distress.”

“Ha,” she said as she sat up. She was in the medical center in Zhu’s Hope. “When did the Normandy land?”

“We were informed when you fell unconscious. Nihlus brought you here while Garrus and Shiala caught us up. I take it Benezia brought you up to speed?”

“Yep. Load up, we’re going to Therum.”

As they headed to the docks, they were approached by Shiala. “Commander. My Lady thanks you for helping her daughter, but we will not be accompanying you. She wishes to remain here with the colonists, and assist them in their recovery from the thorian and ExoGeni.”

“All right. Will the rest of her acolytes be coming?” Andra asked, interested.

Shiala nodded. “They are on their way now, and should be arriving before the day ends.”

She saluted, and headed back into the colony. Andra shrugged and turned to the Normandy. As soon as she and Saren were clear of the airlock, she turned to Joker. “I want Wrex, Tali, Garrus, Nihlus, and the squad to meet me and Saren in the comm room in five. We’ve got a lot to discuss. Once we’re clear, make a course to Therum.”

“Aye, aye, Commander. You planning on explaining that slip earlier any time soon?”

Andra laughed as she headed to the comm room. “Still don’t have my drink, Joker.”

Entering the comm room behind Saren, Andra was pleased to see that Wrex and Tali seemed to have hit it off. The pair were seated together, Wrex between Tali and the rest of the room. Garrus and Nihlus leaned on opposite walls, not quite glaring at each other. Saren walked through the room and leaned on the final wall, keeping an eye on the younger turians. Alenko, Williams and Jenkins stood to attention when she walked in. 

“At ease.” The humans sat, and she addressed the room. “This mission has turned out to be much bigger than we thought. With the help of Lady Benezia and the information from the thorian, I’ve managed to decipher the information from the beacon. It was a warning from the Protheans to all future races. They were hunted to extinction by a race of synthetics called Reapers. These Reapers come through every fifty thousand years to kill all organic life. The first thing they attack is the Citadel. The good news is, right now they can’t get to the Citadel without first going to Ilos. Thanks to the Rachni queen, we have the coordinates for the Mu relay and can reach Ilos. Dr Qian is working with the geth and the Reapers to open the Conduit on Ilos to permit the Reapers full access to the Citadel. From what we overheard, the Illusive Man is planning to kill or otherwise remove Qian for reasons we have yet to determine.

“We are going to rescue Dr. T’Soni from Therum, and then Saren, we’ll be dropping you on the Citadel. The rest of us will travel to Ilos and close or destroy the Conduit while you inform the council. If you can arrange a defensive force as well, that would probably be for the best. Any questions?”

“Why a defensive force?” Tali asked.

“Plan for the worst, hope for the best. If Qian and Cerberus get to Ilos before we do, they might start attacking the Citadel before we can get there.” Andra looked around the room. Ashley was trying to catch her eye, signaling that she wanted a private meeting. Andra nodded. “All right everyone. Williams, stay behind. Dismissed.”

Andra waited while everyone filed out, then turned to Ashley. “You wanted to talk?”

“Yes, Commander.” She sighed and straightened her shoulders. “I’m worried about the aliens. The turians and Wrex. With all due respect, Commander, should they have full access to the ship?”

Andra raised an eyebrow at that. “Meaning?”

“This is the most advanced ship in the Alliance Navy. I just don’t think that they should be allowed to poke around the vital systems.”

Andra cut her off. “The turians helped fund the making of the Normandy. The Hierarchy already has the designs. They’re planning on building more if this one proves useful. Wrex is a merc. He’s never been to the engine room, so how would he gain any intel? Besides, they’re allies.”

Ashley winced. “I’m not sure I would call the council races ‘allies’. We… humanity… have to learn to rely on ourselves.”

Andra crossed her arms as she considered the other woman. “You still maintain this, even with the turians taking in a number of human orphans?”

“Look. If you’re fighting a bear, and the only way to survive is to sic your dog on it and run, you will. Doesn’t matter how much you love your dog, it’s still an animal. The turians only took in those kids as a political maneuver. They don’t care about them. They can’t. No race is going to stick out its neck for another. It’s short-sighted to think that the turians will help if their back is against the wall. Any species is going to hold its own more important than us.”

Andra throttled down the rage that Ashley’s speech stirred up. “Gunnery Chief. The aliens will remain on this ship until Qian has been dealt with. You will be working with them. If you should have a problem working with them, tell me now, and I will have you transferred to a position where you will not need to deal with aliens again. Am I understood?”

Ashley looked surprised at the change in demeanor, but snapped a salute and answered, “Understood, Ma’am.” When Andra returned the salute, she headed down to the cargo bay. At least three of the aliens had chosen to bunk down there, and she wanted to keep an eye on them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now I only have eight chapters in my buffer (I got distracted by re-watching Avatar)
> 
> So: everyone is up to speed, and Liara rescuing is on the way! 
> 
> Comments are love, my commissions are open @ p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com


	21. Chapter 21

Nihlus waited outside the comm room until Ashley marched out. She glared at him, and headed belowdecks. Nihlus ignored her and watched Andra’s face as she entered the CIC. “Commander. A word?” he asked when she saw him. She nodded and led the way to her cabin.

Nihlus looked around her quarters, intrigued. She had a nest of pillows and blankets on the bed and a strange statue and a pair of books on the bedside table. She sat, cross-legged, on the foot of the bed and gestured to the only chair. “You wanted to talk?”

Nihlus found he couldn’t settle, couldn’t look at her. He wandered over to her side table and examined the books. The Phantom of the Opera, and The Infinity Principle: A Guide to Practical Application in Combat Scenarios. “Light reading?” he asked, then sighed. “I treated you unfairly. When I learned you are Arterius, I…” He reached for the statue, studying it as he searched for the words. “Well. I panicked. Saren took me in, when the military was about to throw me out. He taught me, trained me, to be better than I was. The thought of angering him….” Nihlus trailed off, rolling the statue in his hands. “I didn’t… I’m not very good at keeping relationships. Put a gun in my hand, point me at a problem, I can handle that. Other people-”

He was cut off by a pillow connecting with the side of his head at speed. He turned, astonished, to see Andra prepared to throw another. “You’re shit at relationships because you don’t tell anyone what’s going on in that thick skull of yours unless they drag it out!” She sighed and put the pillow down. Shifting to hug her knee, she continued, “Saren doesn’t give a good goddamn who I bed. He’s turian.” Nihlus snorted. “My whole family are. They’re a little overprotective, yeah, but they don’t want to see me hurt.” Nihlus put the statue back and sat next to her. She leaned over, resting her head on his shoulder. 

They sat in silence for a while, then Nihlus coughed and said, “You were my first human. I hope I satisfied.” 

She chuckled. “You did. More than once, as I recall. You were mostly my first turian, too.”

“Only mostly?” he asked, amused.

She snorted. “Garrus and I used to fool around when we were younger.” She shrugged, “Turns out, he’s not that into humans. So we fooled around, he wasn’t feeling it, we stopped. Stayed friends, though.”

Nihlus considered this. He picked up the statue again and turned it around in his hands. “Lord Ganesh. The remover of obstacles.” Andra informed him.

Nihlus chuffed. “I can see why you like him.” He put the statue back and looked down on her. Cautiously, he said, “I don’t keep many friends. I’d hate to lose a good one due to my stupidity.”

Andra snorted a fair approximation of a d’arvit in the back of her throat. “You’re an idiot. That’s why you need friends. Someone needs to watch your back.”

Nihlus grinned a little. “Saren said you would be furious at me.”

“I am. But it’s kinda like kicking a pup right now. I’ll still watch your back, but I’m not sure I can trust you enough to sleep with you anytime soon.”

She had her back to him, returning the pillow she’d thrown at him, and so didn’t see the flare of hope on his face. “Anytime soon?” 

She turned to look at him, hip cocked. “I’m not saying ‘no’, but I’m not saying ‘yes’ either. We already did the tumble. But I am still pissed and hurt about what happened. If you plan on making a play again, I strongly recommend building up that shattered trust first. Woo me. You’re cute, I’ll give you that. But I want more than that, you know?”

He nodded as Joker came over the comm, “Therum in 20 minutes, Commander.”

“On my way.” She looked at Nihlus. “I want Saren and Ashley on this run.” Nihlus nodded, and went to find Saren. Andra took the elevator to the cargo hold. She walked over to Garrus first.

“You two settled things?” Garrus asked.

She leaned on the mako next to him. “Sort of. I told him about us. He’s going to try for friendship, build up trust.” She caught Ashley staring and yelled across the hold, “Williams, grab your gear!” Ashley jumped, surprised, then headed to her locker to start arming up. Andra turned back to Garrus, “Go talk to Nihlus. Apparently, he is terrified of my uncle.” 

Garrus snorted. “Alright.” Pushing off the mako, he nodded respectfully to Saren as the older turian exited the elevator. Garrus looked back at Andra and the mako, and said in pained tones, “Try not to destroy this one? It’s almost pristine.”

Andra just laughed at him and entered the mako. Saren joined her, sitting in the back and stretching out to, to all appearances, take a nap. Ashley climbed in a few moments later, pausing when she saw Saren, but sitting in the vacant seat opposite him with no spoken complaint. 

“Hold is clear, Ma’am. We are good to go once we reach the LZ.” Ashley reported, strapping in.

Andra nodded and opened a comm channel, “Joker, the mako is go for landing at your mark.”

“Roger that, Commander. We are approaching the landing zone now.” Joker replied.

The loading ramp descended, and Andra drove the mako out of the hold. The Normandy flew off to wait in orbit, and Andra guided the mako to earth. They landed heavily in what looked like an abandoned mining camp. Andra scanned the area and found no signs of life.

“Huh. Weird.” She drove the mako down the path to the second site. She kept an eye on the external heat sensors as they drove past lakes of lava, but they were well within the safety range. She guided the mako down the path as Saren broke the silence. “Geth ahead, just past that curve.”

“I see them, Patruus.” She fired a rocket into the cluster of geth and used the turret gun to finish the few who had escaped the blast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> d’arvit- a rude noise, made with the subvocals.  
> Patruus- Uncle  
> Lanura- a brightly-colored flying lizard native of palaven, used frequently as a term of endearment.
> 
> Comments are love! Come poke at me at my [Tumblr](p1ratew3nch.tumblr.com)


	22. Chapter 22

Garrus entered the crew deck and heard the quarian, Tali, yelling at someone. “I need those food scrubbers! That’s why the Commander ordered them! They’re not taking up that much space!”

The ship’s doctor, Dr. Chakwas, stepped in as Garrus came around the corner. “Tali, I have enough to last until we reach the Citadel again, and I’m sure Commander Shepard will ensure Lieutenant Alenko will acquire more for you.”

Garrus approached Wrex, who was glaring steadily at Alenko. “What happened?”

Wrex growled, “Alenko tossed Tali’s food scrubbers in the compacter.”

Garrus winced and made a note on his omni-tool to get more. He looked around, Alenko was looking suitably chagrined and Dr. Chakwas seemed to have everything under control. He caught Nihlus’s eye and gestured to the stairs. Nihlus shrugged and followed. They settled in the comm room as it was one of the only places to have an actual private conversation on the ship. 

Nihlus leaned against the console while Garrus swiveled one of the chairs to study the Spectre. Nihlus looked a little more settled than he had before. “I take it your talk went well?” Garrus asked him.

Nihlus didn’t react. Garrus sighed and leaned back. “Andra said I should talk to you. I knew Saren when we were growing up. He helped show me how to shoot. From what I know of him, you won’t disappoint him unless you willingly do something stupid.”

Nihlus sighed and moved to the chair across from Garrus. “He is more my father than the turian who sired me.”

Garrus nodded. “I understand. Does he know that?”

Nihlus looked almost offended. “Of course not! He is my superior, it wouldn’t be proper.”

Garrus chuffed, “I don’t think he’d care overmuch about propriety. Did you hear how he handled his brother’s former lover trying to take his niece?”

Nihlus leaned forward, intrigued. “No, I had not. What did he do?”

Garrus laughed and made himself comfortable.

——————————————————————————————————————

Andra drove the mako up to the ridge blocking the final portion of the path. “You know, I’m pretty sure I could get the mako over this.”

Ashley whimpered. “For the love of all that is holy, Ma’am, please don’t try. It’s not that far, we can walk. Please?”

Andra shot an amused glance over her shoulder. “All right. Need a minute, Chief?”

“No, Ma’am. Let’s go the rest of the way on foot now. Immediately.” She stumbled getting out of the mako and stood by the opening in the rocks.

“She made good time getting out of here.” Saren observed. “Although, I think at least half of that was unnecessary.”

Andra shrugged. “She holds certain opinions I disagree with. As they are opinions, I can’t discipline her.” Saren cocked a browplate and she continue. “She thinks that Father only adopted me for political gain, that you and Mother don’t, can’t really care about me because we’re different races.”

Saren kept his expression bland. “She said this?”

“In general. She said that that was true for all of us who were adopted.” She shook her head. “But that’s neither here nor there. We need to extract Dr. T’Soni. Let’s go.”

They headed up the small rise, Ashley in the lead, and found a wide valley populated with a large number of geth. Andra found a good position and readied her sniper rifle. She kept up covering fire as Saren and Ashley worked their way to the main road. Andra made a final sweep of the rock face above them and picked off two snipers higher up the ledge, then went to follow them, programing the mako for a pickup.

———————————————————————————————————————

Garrus and Nihlus lounged in easy camaraderie in the comm room. Nihlus had found a few bottles of cheap brandy and the two were well lubricated. “The thing I don’t understand,” Nihlus was saying, “Is it’s really obvious you love her, but she told me you don’t go for humans.”

Garrus took a long pull and finished his bottle. “Normally, I don’t. But Andra… there’s just something about her, you know?” He shrugged and slid out of the chair to the floor. “I want her, but she deserves someone more. I’m just a CSEC officer. I’m a bad turian. She needs… she needs you.”

Nihlus jerked up from his sprawl, “What?”

Garrus nodded sagely, “You’re a Spectre, one of the best. You’ve got the reputation, the clout. And you love her. You’d be perfect for her.”

Nihlus shook his head, “No. I’m only good as a Spectre because I block everything off. I don’t… I can’t… I have no idea how to form the easy intimacy the two of you have. I’d only hurt her over and over again. She deserves someone like you.”

Garrus rolled his eyes, “How do you know?”

Nihlus finished his bottle and said, “Let me tell you about the mission we did. The Alliance asked for Council assistance to take out a Cerberus cell. The Council handed it to me. I decided that the easiest way to get into the cell was to send a couple of humans who knew turian military code. Most of the Cerberus operatives were former or current Alliance, so they knew the human military signs. Wound up sending Andra and Warren Abiso.”

“I know him. He’s a good soldier.” Garrus interrupted.

“He is, and he’d worked with Andra before. Anyway, they got in, no problems. They gathered enough intel in fifteen minutes to shut down a large operation that Cerberus had in the works. Abiso was evacced with the intel, while Andra was going to distract the guards. There was a miscommunication, and I went in to evac her too soon. We had to shoot our way out of the base, and Cerberus blew it while we were still inside. We managed to escape with minimal harm.”

“Who initiated?” Garrus wanted to know.

“She did. And then, the next morning, she’s still there. Her omni-tool had a message displayed, from Saren. That’s when I found out she’s his niece. I admit I panicked, and kicked her out.”

Garrus studied him. “You’re an idiot.” He cocked his head at the other turian. “So, between the two of us, we make one perfect mate for Andra, and one horrible one.” He stared thoughtfully at the wall over Nihlus’s head. “This might be the alcohol, but I wonder if she’d be willing to try a garvansaag.”

Nihlus looked down at Garrus, stunned. “That’s it. You’ve had far too much to drink.”

—————————————————————————————————————

Andra looked at the armature, then back at Ashley. “This would have been easier with the mako.”

Ashley looked up from applying omni-gel to her armor. “With all due respect, Ma’am, I am never getting into another vehicle with you driving.”

Andra looked upward, “Why is it that whenever someone says ‘with all due respect’, they really mean ‘kiss my ass’?”

Saren chuffed, “You just bring out that reaction in people, Lanura.”

Andra glared at him, then stuck out her tongue. “All right, people. We’re on a rescue mission. Let’s go.”

They entered the mine, clearing the geth on the walkway. The rode a rickety elevator down a level, Andra gripping her rifle almost hard enough to draw blood. Once back on the walkways, she relaxed, continuing to provide covering fire. In the second elevator, however, she nearly clawed her way out of the box when it stopped between two floors. Saren brushed her arm and she calmed a bit, following the others into the main cavern.

She shook off the lingering effects of the fear and approached a glowing barrier. On the other side, an asari maiden hung suspended in an orb of light. The asari saw her and said, “Are…are you real? Oh,no, Liara, don’t be stupid, humans do not come here, you’re hallucinating. And talking to yourself. Ha! Oh, Goddess, I’m going to die here.”

“We’re real, and we’re going to get you out of there.” Turning to Ashley and Saren, she gestured for them to go clear the cavern.

“You’re oddly lucid for a hallucination. They don’t usually claim to be real. Or do they? I guess I wouldn’t know. I don’t usually hallucinate. At least, I don’t think I do.”

Andra turned away from the captive asari and took out two geth on the far side of the cavern. She hopped down to examine the mining laser in the middle of the cavern. Grinning, she overrode the lock and turned it on. There was a rumble while the laser dug into the stone, and after a few seconds there was a passable tunnel.

She led the way to the central column. She glanced at the controls and realized she could not only read them, but knew how to make them work. Score one for having my head messed with. Now I can read Prothean. She sent the elevator up to the floor the asari was on. Heading down the short hall, she caught the asari’s attention. 

“And now I’m hallucinating you’re inside the tower. I must be getting worse. Earlier, I even imagined I heard thunder.” 

Andra said, “We used the mining laser to bore through,” as she used the controls to free the asari. 

The asari fell to the ground, then looked at Andra. “You were real? Oh, Goddess, I thought I was hallucinating.”

Andra helped her to her feet, “Dr. T’Soni? Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”

They headed out to the central elevator, Andra supporting Liara. Saren activated his comm and called Joker for a pickup. At the top, they were met by a krogan with a small group of geth. Saren and Andra drew and fired before the krogan could open his mouth. Ashley and Saren took out the geth while Andra shot the krogan several more times to be sure. They then exited the mine to board the Normandy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Arterius family collectively gives zero shits.
> 
> Also: garvansaag- a turian term for any relationship that's more than just a pair, whether a poly group or triad, or a new relationship after your first mate dies.
> 
> Comments are love!


	23. Chapter 23

Once back aboard the Normandy, Andra ordered Ashley to get Liara to the med bay and had Saren contact Lady Benezia to inform her that her daughter was safe. Andra checked in with Pressley to see what she missed on her way to the CIC. Five minutes later, after setting a course for the Citadel, she walked into the comm room and looked down on the two very drunk turians on the floor. As she debated the merits of leaving them to sober up or rolling them down to the med bay, Garrus cracked open one eye and saw her.

“Andra!” he slurred, trying to grab the chair and missing. Nihlus snickered uncontrollably. “We were talking about you. You’d be okay with garvansaag with us, wouldn’t you?”

Andra stared at him for a minute, then turned on her heel and walked out. _I do not have time for this. I’m not thinking about this. I am going to kill those two when they sober up._ “Pressley! Keep those two in there until they sober up or we reach the Citadel, whichever happens first.” She marched down to the hold and found requisitions officer Chris Postle. “Put in an order for more food scrubbers, if Alenko hasn’t yet”

“Yes, Ma’am. Lieutenant Alenko already did, and they’ll be waiting on the docks when we arrive.” he told her.

“Good. That will be all.” She turned to head for the engine room to talk with Tali. 

Saren came around the mako and stopped her. “You’re looking a bit tense. What’s wrong?”

Andra ran her hands through her hair and stifled a scream. “Your proteges are drunk off their asses in the comm room. I asked Garrus to talk to Nihlus about you, and me, and all that drama, and apparently they now think that garvansaag will fix everything! And! One of my crew threw out the food scrubbers I got so Tali would be alright, and another of my crew is racist against me and my whole family, and I have to convince the council to send a Spectre into the Traverse to the Mu relay to go to a planet that most people think is a myth to maybe, if we’re lucky, stop whatever the fuck Cerberus is up to, and find a way to stop an ancient race that no one knows anything about!” She stopped, panting.

Saren simply put his hand on her shoulder and said, “I’ll deal with my proteges and the council. As I have sent all the information we have gathered to Desolas, we will likely have the support of the Primarch to deal with Cerberus and the reapers. As Cerberus shows poorly for the humans, you would likely also find support with Alliance command.”

She sighed and looked up at Saren. “Go deal with the drunken idiots in the comm room, please. I need to talk to Tali.” Saren chuffed and headed to the elevator. 

Andra headed down to the engine room and nodded at the crew. She saw Tali working on a console and decided to stop and chat with Chief Engineer Adams first. “Adams.”

“Commander! Don’t usually see you down here. How can I help you?” Adams asked.

“Find me an extra week or two between now and tomorrow?” she asked hopefully.

“Sorry, Commander, that is a bit beyond my skills.” Adams laughed a bit as he said it.

Andra sighed. “Very well. I did want to ask how Tali’s been fitting in, see if there were any problems.”

“With Tali? No!” he sounded surprised. “She’s amazing, better than most I’ve had under my command. To be honest, I want to keep her, and if anyone has a problem with it, they can talk to me.”

“Glad to hear it. Carry on.” She let him go and continued on to the quarian. “Hey, Tali. Got a minute?”

“Sure, Commander. What can I do for you?” Tali asked, turning away from her console.

“Just wanted to check in, see how you’re settling in and all.”

“Oh, I’m doing fine! Engineer Adams is wonderful, and this engine!” Tali gushed. 

Andra smiled at that, “You like engines?”

“Oh, yes! On the flotilla, you have to. All of our ships have been repaired over and over, some of them date from the original flight from Rannoch. So it’s nice to get to study a top-of-the-line engine first hand.”

Andra leaned on the console, “Tell me about life on the flotilla. Sounds fascinating.”

————————————————————————

Saren stood in the doorway to the comm room and looked down at the drunken turians on the ground. “Spirits, how much did you two drink?”

Nihlus moaned and rolled over while Garrus snored. Saren studied the room. Eight bottles of high quality brandy from Palaven lay scattered over the floor. _Those boys won’t be getting up for a while, yet._ Saren carefully moved around the room, collecting the bottles and setting them up in a row on the console. Then he quietly left the room and headed down to the crew deck, nodding at the navigator on his way past. He stopped by the med bay to warn Dr. Chakwas and Liara what he had planned, and to pick up some supplies, then moved on to Andra’s cabin. He liberated a couple of pillows and blankets from her nest and proceeded back up to the comm room. Ignoring the look of confusion from the crew as he passed, he entered the comm room and carefully tucked in the younger turians, removing their weapons and gently moving them into the center of the room so they wouldn’t hurt themselves. Then he injected each of them with enough medigel to make them conscious, but still keep their hangovers.

Leaving the comm room again, he walked forward to the cockpit. “Joker. Is it possible to isolate where the intercom plays?” he asked.

Joker looked over, confused. “Yeah, sure. I can do that, easy. Why?”

Saren smiled. “Good. If you could, inform all the ship, save for the comm room, that you will be testing the alarm system in three minutes, and then do so.”

Joker looked steadily at him. “So, how drunk did they get, exactly?”

“They will be conscious and hungover in two minutes.”

“You’re mean. I’m glad you’re on our side.” Joker said, moving back to his console.

Saren moved back to the comm room, sending a brief message to Andra, and then he waited while Joker announced the upcoming alarm test. He opened the door and waited, watching as the two turians started to stir, moaning and complaining all the while. He grinned in anticipation.

The alarm cut through the air, loud enough to hurt, and the two turians jumped and moaned in agony. The alarm cut off quickly, and Saren walked in to stand over the two younger turians. “We will be docking at the Citadel in fifteen minutes. I will speak with both of you in the hold before then.” Then he turned on his heel and left them alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was mostly a filler chapter, but fun.
> 
> Comments are love!
> 
> Seriously, talk to me. It helps inspire me (and since I'm currently stuck on chapter 30, inspiration is needed)


	24. Chapter 24

Garrus and Nihlus stumbled into the hold, still hungover. Dr. Chakwas had denied them painkillers on the grounds that she felt they deserved their hangovers for getting so drunk while in the middle of a mission. They found Saren leaning against the mako. Tellingly, the hold was vacant save for him. They exchanged worried looks, then Nihlus squared his shoulders and walked forward, Garrus trailing behind.

They stopped in front of Saren, eyes down, waiting. Saren studied them in silence. Garrus shifted his weight, and still Saren said nothing. Nihlus looked up, swallowed, and met Saren’s eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, to defend his actions, something, but nothing came out. His gaze fell back to the floor.

Saren sighed and spoke. “Garvansaag?”

The younger turians flinched. Garrus coughed. “I, uh… I don’t remember why I thought that was a good idea.”

Nihlus straightened and looked Saren squarely in the eye. “This is my fault. I treated the Commander unfairly because-”

He stopped as Saren waved a hand. “I do not care whose fault it is, nor who brought it up first. Garvansaag does not just happen. It must be carefully cultivated. Right now, Andra is still hurt by your actions, Nihlus, and does not know the depths of your feelings, Garrus. You both need to develop a foundation, independently and together, to convince her that this is what you both want. You both also need to consider that she might not be amenable to garvansaag. Not many are.”

He studied the two shamefaced turians before him. “Regardless, the two of you were far too drunk for the situation. Neither of you were an any condition to provide backup had it been necessary. You both know better than that.”

There was a ragged chorus of “Yes, Sehr”. Saren scowled at them a bit longer, then let them flee in peace.

——————————————————————————————————

The Normandy docked at the Citadel, and Andra was met by a turian with an invitation. She scanned it and grinned. Going back to the cockpit, she announced, “The entire crew of the Normandy, and those guests we have aboard, have been invited to dinner at the turian embassy. Udina is strongly suggesting we all arrive on time.” She passed along the time and location and ended the announcement.

She waved at Saren as he left to go report to the council. Turning back to her crew, she said, “All right, everyone. You’ve got two hours personal before the dinner. Do what you will, but be damn sure you’re sober when you get there.” She glared at Garrus and Nihlus as she said it. 

———————————————————————————————————

Two hours later, after catching Liara up on what they were doing, and disabling a self-aware gambling console, she met the rest of the crew in front of the turian embassy. Liara was mid-rant about the unfairness of spending fifty years studying the Protheans, and Andra having all the information she needed dropped in her lap. Andra rolled her eyes, and swore when she saw Udina approaching with Captain Anderson and Admiral Hackett.

“Straighten up, people, we got brass incoming.” Andra barked over her shoulder. The Alliance members of the crew snapped to attention, while the aliens stood respectfully to one side.

Udina stopped in front of Andra and scowled. Andra bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. “This is important politically, Shepard. Do not do anything to compromise our standing. Your actions reflect upon humanity as a whole. Keep your mouth shut unless answering a direct question. The General is considered to be very touchy on certain subjects.” He frowned at Captain Anderson while the other man tried, and failed, to disguise a laugh as a cough. “Admiral Hackett seems to believe that you can behave yourself, I hope he’s right.” So saying, the ambassador entered the embassy.

Andra saluted Admiral Hackett, who returned it. “You haven’t informed your crew of the full extent of this dinner, have you?” he asked her.

She smiled a little at that. “No. Considering you did not see fit to inform Udina, either….”

“Very well.” The admiral entered the embassy alongside Captain Anderson.

Failing to suppress her grin entirely, Andra turned to her crew. “All right, behave, if you have any questions, ask respectfully, don’t use the tablecloth as a napkin, all that jazz. Let’s go eat. Oh, and Joker? You’re about to get your answer.”

She stood aside, allowing everyone else to proceed her into the embassy. Garrus and Nihlus moved to wait with her, and she sighed. “I have no idea if you remember what you said to me when you both were drunk, but we need to talk later. And you both need to be sober for it.”

So saying, she turned to enter the embassy behind Joker. Inside, a turian, young enough to still be on his mandatory year of service, was introducing the general to Chief Williams. Andra smiled a bit at Ashley’s mild discomfort, and grinned wider when General Desolas looked up and saw her.

“Andra! Tamahiin!” he called, moving through the crowd by the door. Hackett and Anderson looked pleased, while Udina was looking confused, and increasingly angry. 

Desolas reached her and she smiled at him. “Bormah.” He hugged her, and she laughed. “Bormah, Father, if I can introduce my crew.”

She Joker sputter “Father?!” and caught a quick glare from Ashley, but ignored them for now. After the introductions, she, Desolas and Hackett sat at one end of the table to discuss her findings. They were joined shortly by Saren. He looked subtly furious, but shook his head when Andra started to ask what was wrong. She shrugged and turned her attention back to the conversation between Desolas and Hackett.

“At the moment, the geth activity in the Traverse only affects the Systems Alliance and the Hegemony. However, as the Normandy is a joint effort between the Alliance and the Hierarchy, and as our two races are strong allies, I can see lending aid to the geth incursion into the Traverse.” Desolas was saying.

“Good. There is a batarian terrorist making a move to attack Terra Nova. The Council won’t authorize a Spectre to look into it.” Saren added.

Andra looked around, and received a nod to speak. “If I can make a suggestion? We have the coordinates for Ilos, and we know that either Qian, Cerberus, or both are going to use something there. If the Hierarchy can deal with the geth incursion in the Traverse, and someone can stake out Ilos, I and my crew can deal with the batarian.”

Hackett nodded. “Make it so.”

Andra looked over at her father, “If it’s not too much of a hardship, Could you have them pass along all info they get on the geth to Tali? I promised her she’d get it, and if the quarians can get anything useful out of it, it would make reclaiming Rannoch easier on them.”

After the dinner, when the formalities had been dispatched and people were going their separate ways, Saren stopped Andra to talk.

“I have a ship so I’ll keep an eye on Ilos, and keep you informed of what happens there. But survein, watch your back. You won’t be able to talk your way out of everything.” He briefly touched his forehead to hers and left for the docks.

Andra watched as he left, wondering what that was about. Then she shrugged and rounded up her crew to go deal with Balak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations:
> 
> Garvaansag- A relationship involving three adults romantically involved with each other.  
> Tamahiin- Daughter  
> Bormah- Father  
> (Both Tamahiin and Bormah convey a feeling of family and closeness. A male mentor could be called Bormah, for example)  
> Survein- Niece (or younger close family member)  
>  
> 
> So, have an update!

**Author's Note:**

> Holy crap, you guys! I'm so sorry this took forever to do! As you noticed, I'm changing some little details of the beginning, and I'm going to actually cover important stuff in Shepard's childhood in later chapters. All of you who stuck around are wonderful and amazing! And if you're just now finding my little AU, welcome! (please give the writer love, my anxiety doesn't want this story to come out and play.)


End file.
